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Analysis of Requests Received

The information below describes the first 129 sample requests received by Biosample Hub between July 2020 and June 2023. The first two graphs show the number of requests for each disease category. The tables that follow describe, for each of these disease categories,  the specific diseases  and sample types requested.  
Infectious & Parasitic Disease (7)

Neoplasms - Mix (4)

Neoplasms - Head & Neck (4)

Neoplasms - Gastro-Intestinal (15)

Neoplasms - Lung (8)

Neoplasms - Melanoma (2)

Neoplasms - Breast (13)

Neoplasms - Gynae (4)

Neoplasms - Urological (7)

Neoplasms - Brain (1)

Neoplasms - Haem-Onc (9)

Blood & Immune Disease (2)

Endocrine, Nutritional & Metabolic Disease (3)

Mental & Behavioural Disorders (1)

Nervous System Disease (12)

Eye Disease (2)

Circulatory Disease (4)

Respiratory Disease (10)

Digestive Disease (10)

Skin Disease (4)

Musculoskeletal & CT Disease (4)

Pregnancy (3)

Some Key Takeaways from Analysis of Requests

Most Requested Diseases

For non-neoplastic diseases:

  • Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) – 2 requests
  • STDs: Chlamydia & Gonorrhoea – 3 requests
  • Diabetes Mellitus – 3 requests
  • Neurodegenerative diseases,  including ALS, Parkinsons, Alzheimers, Frontotemporal Dementia and Multiple Systems Atrophy – 10 requests
  • Interstitial Lung Disease – IPF and PF-ILD – 4 requests
  • COVID-19 – 3 requests
  • Inflammatory Bowel Disease – Chrohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis – 5 requests
  • Liver disease including NASH, NAFLD, ALD, and cirrhosis – 4 requests
  • Fresh samples of normal skin – 2 requests
  • Systemic Lupus Erythematosis – 3 requests
  • Amniotic fluid, mid-trimester – 2 requests

For neoplastic diseases:

  • Gastro-Intestinal neoplasms – 15 requests
    • Oesophageal – 3
    • Colorectal – 4
    • Hepatocellular – 4
    • Pancreatic – 3
  • Lung cancer – 8 requests
  • Breast cancer – 13 requests
  • Renal cancer – 4 requests
  • Acute Myeloid Leukaemia – 4 requests
  • Multiple myeloma – 3 requests

For solid tumour cases it is very important to collect blood samples

There were 58 requests for samples from solid tumours. Of these 10 were for samples of the solid tumour alone, 38 for solid tumour + blood or blood products and 9 for blood alone. So, blood or blood products were needed for over 80% of these requests.

For the 47 cases in which blood or blood products were requested, these included whole blood (11), serum (22), plasma (15), and PBMCs (20).

Surprisingly Difficult to Source

Of the frequently requested samples, a few are surprisingly difficult to source:

  • Inflammatory Bowel Disease (Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis). Patients with IBD frequently need surgical removal of portions of the intestine. 
  • Fresh normal skin. This can be obtained from plastic surgery procedures like breast reduction surgery and “tummy tucks”.