Access to materials
The project is overseen by a Steering Committee, which is comprised of representatives from each of the funding bodies and the Eastern European governments involved. It is not the aim of the project to restrict access to material - but to regulate access in such a way that the maximum amount of information can be gathered, which could lead to better patient care and assessment of risk from radiation exposure to a young population in the future.

All applications for use of the bank are referred to an independent External Review Panel, which comprises experts nominated by the organisations which sponsor the project - the European Commission (EC), the National Cancer Institute of the USA (NCI), and Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation of Japan (SMHF) - and the governments of the participating Eastern European countries (Ukraine and Russia).

Each sample of nucleic acid or serum will be identified by a CTB sample number and accompanied by a minimum data set comprising the following information:

• date of birth
  
• date of operation
  
• sex
  
• oblast of residence
  
• International Pathology Review Panel diagnosis.

Further more detailed information may be available; the justification for a request for more information than is provided in the minimum data set should be set out in the application.

Applications to access materials and data from the CTB must be submitted on-line. If problems are encountered with the on-line application, applicants should contact the secretariat to request an alternative method of submitting an application.

Applications received by the Secretariat will be

1. registered and given a number
2. acknowledged and an estimated decision date provided
3. copied to the members of the External Review Panel (ERP)

Applications are usually received and acknowledged by email by the CTB secretariat.

An overview of the application review procedure is provided in the flow diagram below. Details of the procedure and of the criteria on which an application will be evaluated are shown in the Fact Sheet.

Schema for review of applications

CTB Portal: http://cisbic.bioinformatics.ic.ac.uk/ctb/html_ctb_public

Where possible, material for a given project will be provided in one batch, in some cases provision may have to be made over a period of time. The distribution of materials to approved projects will be authorised subject to:

1. receipt of the agreement by the Principal Investigator to conform to the conditions set out in the application form
2. modification of the number and size of samples required dependent on the availability of the material

Any project requiring more clinical information than the minimum data set must state this clearly in the application and state if this is an essential component of the application. Any such project will normally be carried out as a collaboration with the NIS institute involved and where appropriate, approval of the relevant Ethical Committee must be sought.