Ongoing Use of Data and Specimens From National Cancer Institute-Sponsored Cancer Prevention Clinical Trials in the Community Clinical Oncology Program

Large cancer prevention trials provide opportunities to collect a wide array of data and biospecimens at study entry and longitudinally, for a healthy, aging population without cancer. This provides an opportunity to use pre-diagnostic data and specimens to evaluate hypotheses about the initial development of cancer. We report on strides made by, and future possibilities for, the use of accessible biorepositories developed from precisely annotated samples obtained through large-scale National Cancer Institute (NCI)-sponsored cancer prevention clinical trials conducted by the NCI Cooperative Groups. These large cancer prevention studies, which have enrolled more than 80,000 volunteers, continue to contribute to our understanding of cancer development more than 10 years after they were closed.