variable or the absence of broad
consent or any of those things,
well, that was a nonstarter,” she
says. “They wanted this tissue out
and used and available, to get on
with the work.”
CR | Page No. 44 | Summer 2009
BEYOND THE BANK
Biospecimen science is a fairly
new discipline, and it’s going to
take some time for researchers to
understand how tumor handling
affects molecular research—and
even more time for that knowledge
to inform the burgeoning field of
individualized medicine.
In the meantime, those who
safeguard tumor banks echo the
sentiments of Clare: “The tissue
is no good in a tissue bank,” says
Tolcher. “We want to get it out and
stimulate ideas.”
Rimm, back at Yale’s collection,
agrees. “ ‘Bank’ is kind of a funny
name,” he says. “Money, when it
sits in the bank, gains value. Tissue,
when it sits in a bank, loses value.
My goal is to get the tissue out of
the bank and to the researchers.”
Getting the tumor tissue out
of the banks is a step toward
understanding what makes a tumor
tick—and how to make it stop.
“We want to discover a new
piece of biologic knowledge [and]
translate that into a product that
can actually help patients,” says
Compton, of the NCI. “This starts and
ends with the patient. It starts with
the patient and the donation.”
For most of Katia Fuso’s life, no
one in her family had any inkling
just how biologically special she
is. Fuso grew up in the small,
ancient Umbrian town of Spello,
in the center of Italy, before her
family moved to Rome when she
was 14. She married, worked in a
government office, enjoyed trips
to the country on weekends, and
watched with pride as her two
daughters grew up to work in the
medical field. It was a satisfying
but not unusual life.
At first, even her bout with
highly aggressive breast cancer
in 1995 seemed to mirror
broader trends. She was 48 at
the time, and like many women,
was completely shocked when
her doctor said at the end of a
routine checkup that she needed
an operation as soon as possible.
And just as in the United States,
in Italy Fuso was hardly alone.
Breast cancer is the most common
cancer among women there, as it
is among women in the U.S.—in
other words, a serious problem
that touches all too many lives.
Fuso was so focused on
following her doctors’ advice
that she wasn’t even afraid—it
was almost as if the situation
were happening to someone else,
she says. And after 18 cycles of
chemotherapy and three months
KATIA FUSO’S SPECIAL TUMOR
By Kevin Begos
away from work, she became part
of another large group: women
who survive breast cancer and go
back to living productive, happy
lives. For a time, that seemed to be
the end of the story.
But the tumor wasn’t really gone.
Yes, it was certainly in remission
in her body, but a portion of the
tissue was in storage at the Regina
Elena Cancer Institute in Rome.
Thinking back, Fuso recalls that her
doctors kept saying her blood was
“very interesting.” She didn’t ask
just what that meant, but doctors
at the institute did.
Physician Pier Giorgio Natali
recalls that when a member of the
institute’s translational research
team examined its database of
cancer patients, Fuso’s case stood
out. She had an aggressive tumor
yet was a long-term survivor.
Natali, the institute’s scientific
director at the time, says this
combination led to speculation
that Fuso’s body might contain
tumor-fighting antibodies. The
basic concept wasn’t new, and in
fact research on laboratory mice
had identified genes that lead to
the production of such antibodies.
But finding a similar gene in a
human could be like looking for a
needle in a haystack. Fuso’s tumor
and her recovery gave scientists a
lead about where to look.
