Harmonisation of biobanking standards in endometrial cancer research

BACKGROUND: Endometrial cancer is the most common gynaecological cancer and its incidence is predicted to escalate by 50–100% in 2025 with a parallel increase in associated mortality. Variations in the collection, processing and storage of biospecimens can affect the generalisability of the scientific data. We aimed to harmonise the collection of biospecimens, clinical data relevant to endometrial cancer and to develop standard operative procedures for the collection, processing and storage of endometrial cancer biospecimens. METHODS: We designed research tools, which were evaluated and revised through three consensus rounds – to obtain local/regional, national and European consensus. Modified final tools were disseminated to a panel (n=40) representing all stakeholders in endometrial cancer research for consensus generation. RESULTS: The final consensus demonstrated unanimous agreement with the minimal surgical and patient data collection tools. A high level of agreement was also observed for the other remaining standard tools. CONCLUSIONS: We here present the final versions of the tools, which are freely available and easily accessible to all endometrial cancer researchers. We believe that these tools will facilitate rapid progress in endometrial cancer research, both in future collaborations and in large-scale multicentre studies.