Pediatric GIST Tissue Bank

Due to the rarity of GIST, it can be difficult to obtain samples for a particular research project. In order to circumvent this obstacle, an annotated tissue bank has been created for Pediatric GIST. Researchers involved with the LRG Priority Research Project will send tissue samples, according to a specified protocol, to the tissue bank.

Who is Eligible: Pediatric GIST patients who were diagnosed with Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor (GIST).

Who will Coordinate the Tissue Shipment: Usually the Pathology Department where the tumor resection was performed. In some cases patients might write a request for the Pathology or Clinical Department for their tissue to be released.

Material Needed for Shipment:

• Frozen Tumor Tissue saved at the time of surgical resection and stored at -80°C before shipping. The tissue will be collected in the shipment kit provided or in any plastic container (nunc, cryomold in OCT, etc.). It is preferable that the frozen tumor tissue be accompanied by a piece of matched normal tissue (gastric or intestinal wall, fat, skeletal muscle, etc). The tissue will be shipped in dry ice.

• Paraffin Tissue Block: to be selected by the outside Pathologist from a representative viable tumor slide and which has been previously confirmed to be CD117 (c-KIT) positive. If there are multiple nodules removed (such as primary and metastases, or multiple resistant nodules) it is advised to send one paraffin block from each.
Instructions for submitting paraffin tissue.

• Pathology Report: For maintaining patient confidentiality, the copy of the Pathology report to be included with the shipment of the tissue should have wiped out the patient identifiers, such as name, DOB, and SS. A copy of the Pathology report with patient identification should be faxed at the same time to Life Raft Group at (973) 837-9095 for maintaining a record and possibly identification at a later time.

Address for Shipment:

Pediatric GIST Bank
(patients that were diagnosed <18yrs)

Cristina Antonescu, MD
Department of Pathology
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Ctr
1275 York Ave
New York, NY 10021
Tel (212) 639-5905
Fax: (212) 717-3203
Email: antonesc@mskcc.org