The XBTC is a network of ten tumour banks at the main hospitals in Catalonia, coordinated by the Clínic-IDIBAPS Tumour and Tissue Bank.
Tumour banks form part of biobanks, entities that manage access to human biological samples for use in research projects. By giving their informed consent to a biobank, a patient can donate their biological sample for use in any research project in the world, if the project has been evaluated and approved by an ethics committee. Accordingly, biobanks and ethics committees in our country work together to ensure compliance with the ethical and legal principles governing the use of patient samples established under current legislation in Spain.
This year, the XBTC organised the Second Conference on Good Practice with the aim of providing a space for members of network’s biobanks and ethics committees to engage in debate and exchanges of ideas. The conference programme also included a lecture by Pilar Nicolas, a national expert in bioethics, on the use of data in research, as well as two discussion panels, on how to optimise circuits of access to samples, and dissemination in the scientific community and society.
The conference was attended by 115 people, in person and online, from twelve centres.
