Biospecimens, biobanking and global cancer research collaborations

The disparities in prostate cancer incidence and mortality continue to be a global public health problem. Efforts to address the prostate cancer disparity in black men have been met with a number of challenges, specifically in the accessibility to biospecimens in the context of global prostate cancer collaborations. During the International Educational Workshop at the Science of Global Prostate Cancer Disparities conference held 1–4 November 2012 in Nassau, the Bahamas, an overview of biobanking and biospecimen repositories, and materials transfer in global prostate cancer collaborations were discussed. The challenges faced by low-resource countries were identified, and potential solutions were recommended.