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The Past Is Prologue: Use of Serum Banks in Cancer Research¹

Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06510 [A. S. E.], and Department of Epidemiology, Harvard University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115 [N. E. M.]

In this paper, we emphasize the uses of serum banks in cancer research. These include not only case/control studies but also prospective seroepidemiological studies in which the development of a serological marker, such as a viral antibody or viral antigen, can be correlated with the subsequent development of cancer in either an active surveillance program or the use of cancer registries or hospital records. Several different methods of application of the cohort technique are illustrated by studies of hepatitis B antigen and hepatocellular carcinoma and of Epstein-Barr virus in relation to African Burkitt's lymphoma, Hodgkin's lymphoma, and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Collections of sera done for one purpose can often be utilized for another purpose, if properly stored and documented. Two examples are tests for human T-cell leukemia virus, type 1, antibody from sera done for a health survey in Barbados approximately 8 years earlier and the use of data determined for a prospective study of the incidence of Epstein-Barr virus infection and infections mononucleosis in West Point Cadets for psychological factors affecting the development of clinical illness among those infected. Archival materials, such as frozen tissues and paraffin sections, may also now be utilized for identifying genomes of potential oncogenic viruses by the polymerase chain reaction.

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