What happens to the results of the research studies?
Researchers who obtain material from the CTB agree to provide the results of their investigation on a case-by-case basis. This information will not be used until after the researchers have published their findings, but it will allow the results of all of the studies to be correlated at a later date, so that, for example, the investigations by different groups of a number of different genes can be correlated to study their interactions. The provision of extracted nucleic acid from thyroid tissue, rather than each researcher being provided with a small piece of tissue maximises the amount of data that can potentially be obtained from a single operative specimen and will enable multiple molecular biological studies to be carried out for each case. Over the next few years this database of research results will be made available via the internet to approved users, and bioinformatic tools will be provided to help researchers interpret the data. This area of the project is designated CTBi.

Where is the CTB located?
The two banks are situated in two of the countries most exposed to fallout from Chernobyl; at the Institute of Endocrinology and Metabolism in Kiev, Ukraine and the Medical Radiological Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences in Obninsk, Russia. Each bank houses only material and information from its own population. In addition, a back-up copy of each of the computer databases is maintained at the Coordinating Centre at Imperial College, London, where an integrated database of data from both countries is also maintained. The two banks of biological samples plus the databases in each of the two countries and the integrated database are collectively referred to as the CTB. The integrated database is currently being moved to Imperial College to enable work to proceed on developing a secure, web-accessible structure.

Study cohort
The CTB includes material and information from all patients with thyroid carcinomas and cellular follicular adenomas from the the contaminated oblasts of the Russian Federation (Bryansk, Kaluga, Tula and Oryol) and Ukraine (Kiev, Kiev city, Cherkasse, Chernigov, Rovno, Zhitomyr and Sumy) who were born after 26th April 1967 (i.e. aged under 19 at the time of the Chernobyl accident) and operated on or after the 1st October 1998. Detailed standard operating procedures for the collection and documentation of specimens and blood samples have been agreed with professional staff involved in the collection of material, and ethical standards agreed upon with the relevant authorities, conforming to the requirements of each country involved, including those of the funding organisations. Standard operating procedures for collection of information and material have been approved by the relevant Ethical Committees. Each specimen is given a code authorized by the appropriate person responsible for the management of the resource in each of the three countries. The age, sex, date of birth, date of operation, oblast and country of residence are recorded for each specimen stored in the CTB, and are made available to researchers with approved projects receiving material from the bank. Information enabling researchers to identify an individual patient (e.g. name, address etc) is stored separately and password protected, in the Institutes in Ukraine and Russia and is not available to researchers.