Brain Cancer Tissue Bank
With the generosity of the family of Jacquie Lorraine Goldman and other benefactors, Mayo Clinic is pursuing a transformative vision for brain cancer care. Studying the genes and proteins that influence cancer development and progression in the brain, we will help tomorrow’s caregivers diagnose these cancers earlier and treat them far more effectively.

These innovations have the potential to enhance every aspect of brain cancer care and perhaps make prevention possible. Treatment will become less speculative and far more reassuring. It will be more effective because it will become safer, more individualized and more humane.

How Will The Jacquie Lorraine Goldman Fund Help?
Many elements are necessary to make Mayo Clinic’s vision possible. A research environment where clinicians and scientists can work together closely is vital, as are advanced biomedical technologies and a large population of patients willing to participate in research.

But something even more fundamental is needed. A large tissue bank is necessary to create the medicine of tomorrow. This bank must include tissue types of all kinds — including normal brain tissue and cancerous tissue for all stages and types of brain cancers. This vast tissue library will enable Mayo Clinic researchers to accurately identify the key culprits in brain cancers; not just genes or proteins that influence cancer development, but ones that make cancers more aggressive or resistant to therapies. Once found, these malignant forces can be stopped.

Thanks to the Jacquie Lorraine Goldman Fund, Mayo Clinic now has a way to preserve an incredible resource – tumor samples that patients will donate to us through our considerable practice in Florida. The Florida program offers more clinical trials for brain cancer treatment than any other medical center in the state, and our surgeons perform more than 100 operations each year to remove tumors of the brain and spinal chord. Because of the Goldman Fund, we will now have the financial resources to store these tissues and other biospecimens, creating a repository that will fuel ongoing discoveries and patient care improvements.

The tissue bank will help advance patient care continuously because of the nature of research and the rate at which medical knowledge is expanding. As we learn more about cancers of the brain, new ways of analyzing them will become possible. A tissue bank will make it possible for Mayo Clinic investigators to apply this knowledge quickly and with far-reaching relevance to patient care.

Why Is Philanthropy Necessary?
Mayo Clinic has already begun assembling a large tissue bank for cancers. But the cost to do so is considerable and continuing. Storing tissues and other biological samples is more complicated than finding a suitable container and freezer space. The complexity can also increase substantially, depending upon the intended use for the sample. As a result, the cost of obtaining and preserving a sample can easily exceed $100, and storage is an ongoing expense. At the Jacksonville campus, Mayo Clinic currently spends more than $100,000 annually on this activity alone.