Trial Information

The Chernobyl Tissue Bank

The large number of thyroid tumors that have occurred in areas exposed to high levels of
fallout from the Chernobyl accident raise problems of public health importance, or
regulatory importance, and of scientific importance. The over-riding priority must go to
matters such as diagnosis, treatment of those affected and prevention, and International
Agencies are giving financial and material help in these areas. However providing the needs
of the patient are not compromised, it is very important to ensure that information that may
be of value to the health of future generations is not lost. International agencies are
again providing financial support for a variety of joint studies, some of which are based on
studies of tissues from thyroid operations carried out as part of treatment, and not
required for the initial diagnosis on which treatment is based. An international
coordinated approach to this problem is not in place to help Belarus, the Russian Federation
and Ukraine to establish their own comprehensive thyroid tissue and data banks and to ensure
that tissue and nucleic acids are used to contribute to the understanding of the
consequences of the Chernobyl accident. This project has the support of the Governments of
Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine and the National Cancer Institute of the USA,
(NCI), the European Commission (EC), the Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation of Japan (SMHF)
and the World Health Organization (WHO) have agreed to cooperate in supporting this project.