The Komen Tissue Bank’s Virtual Tissue Bank Resource

The Komen Tissue Bank (KTB) is the only repository in the world for normal breast tissue and matched serum, plasma and DNA. We are committed to making a difference by acting as advocates for thinking, sharing and understanding NORMAL.  A part of the KTB’s resources is the Virtual Tissue Bank.  In the Virtual Tissue Bank, researchers can:

  • view and download data generated by researchers using KTB samples
  • download and use medical history data of the donors
  • view mammograms of the donors
  • download and use images and H&Es

You can search the medical history data from all of the KTB’s more than 10,000 donors, sort it into different order, and filter it through different data fields.  All data is available to you for download and use.  

The search/filter screen can be seen below.  There are more than 70 fields shown on the left side that can be used to customize your search including tobacco/alcohol use, pregnancy information, demographics, sample availability and cancer history.

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Once you have the cohort you are interested selected, as shown in the column on the right side, click on the blue view results button and you will see your results.

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On the results page, you can use the change columns button to select the fields that you are most interested in.  The barcode hyperlinks will link to the specific page about that donation.  There you can see race and ethnicity SNP data as well as H&E and mammogram availability.  You can also see what other research has used this sample.

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You can download any of these items by clicking the download button.  You will need a DICOM reader to view the mammograms and a .svs file reader to view the H&E images.  The medical history data downloads as a CSV file that you can convert to Excel for additional manipulation.