International Tissue and Tumor Repository for Chronic Arseniasis (ITTRCA)
International Tissue and Tumor Repository for Chronic Arseniasis (ITTRCA)
and the Chronic Arsenic Effects Registry
The ITTRCA was established by the US Environmental Protection
Agency, US National Cancer Institute, US National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences, and the US Armed Forces Institute of
Pathology. The overall objective is to provide a biomedical resource of
pathology materials, chemical/analytical services and educational
material that can be available to the national and international
research community for the study of arsenic exposure and
arsenic-induced health effects. ITTRCA has been developed and is
maintained at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP). There are
four developmental and operational aspects to ITTRCA:
- the tissue and tumor repository
- a database of literature-based references on arsenic health effects
- A Relational Database containing key data on each case and tissue in the ITTRCA repository, and
- Development, Standardization, and Validation of protocols and
methods for the collection, handling, storage, transportation and
analysis of tissue and fluid specimens.
The Tissue and Tumor Repository is composed of case materials
containing specimens in different forms including frozen specimens,
paraffin blocks and/or formalin-fixed material. Information on the
archived materials is available in the form of detailed demographic,
environmental exposure history, clinical history, and other relevant
information. The ITTRCA has conducted extensive chemical speciation
analysis on all the materials archived at the Registry.