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The use of biosamples for research depends on the willingness of patients to donate biosamples when they undergo surgery or biopsy procedures or at other times. In addition, research also requires these patients donate selected pieces of information from their medical records to help researchers unravel the mysteries of cancer.
If you are due to have a biopsy or surgery for a suspected or known cancer, you may be asked before the procedure if you would consider donating a biosample for research. This might be for a clinical trial and/or through onCore UK for future research. You will receive information describing how the process works, as well as a consent form for your consideration.
Until recently, patients who did not meet the guidelines to be included in a clinical trial were not easily able to donate biosamples for cancer research. This meant, for example, that tumour tissue removed at operation and not needed for the patient’s diagnosis or treatment would be destroyed. Now, that tissue could instead be made available for research through onCore UK.
onCore UK is not a clinical trial and we do not do research on the biosamples. Instead we are a charity who accept donations of blood, tumour tissue and data and store these in carefully controlled conditions for researchers in the future.
Your donation is entirely voluntary and your decision to donate or not will have no effect on the surgical procedure itself or any other aspect of your treatment.
By making a donation, however, you will be personally assisting in the fight against cancer.
If you would like to learn more about donating biosamples, please see the How to Donate section of our website.
Friends, relatives and carers
If you know somebody with cancer who may be interested in donating a biosample for research, please tell them about the information we have available.
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