Since 2002, the Interdisciplinary Melanoma Cooperative Group (IMCG) at Perlmutter Cancer Center has maintained one of the largest clinicopathologic resources, the Melanoma Clinicopathological-Biospecimen Database and Repository, for research on patients 18 years old and over with melanoma or at high risk for melanoma. Clinical data is stored in a secure REDCap database which contains 653 fields to capture clinical and pathological information. The database can be queried for research studies; customized datasets for statistical analyses are created in SAS®. Follow-up data is collected every 3, 6, or 12 months depending on the patient's clinical stage. Biospecimens (i.e., blood/buffy coat, sera, plasma, lymphocytes; and blocks of primary, metastatic, and fresh melanoma tissues) are securely cataloged in LabVantage with linkage to corresponding clinical and pathological data contained in REDCap. Integration of high-quality, annotated biospecimens with clinicopathological data allow applications such as the examination of RNA expression (fresh tissue), protein expression (paraffin embedded tissue), and germline DNA sequences (blood) from the same patients.

As of March 2023, 5,790 consenting patients (including 399 high-risk patients) have contributed clinical data and 99,039 biospecimens to the project. 2,977(55%) of patients are male; the mean age at diagnosis was 60 years old with a mean follow-up duration of 55 months. These metrics are subject to change over time.

Prioritization Plan for Biospecimen Distribution

To use the resources in the Melanoma Clinicopathological-Biospecimen Database and Repository, investigators need to fill the attached request form. The request is reviewed by the IMCG Biospecimen Committee, consisting of:

• Iman Osman, MD – Director, IMCG
• Andre Moreira, MD, PhD – Director of NYU CBRD
• Yongzhao Shao, PhD – Director, Biostatistics & Bioinformatics
• Richard Shapiro, MD – Director of Surgical Oncology Operations, Surgical Oncology
• Amanda Lund PhD. Associate professor of Dermatology and Pathology

The Committee meets monthly to make decisions regarding distribution of biospecimens based on the scientific merit and status of funding, with priority given to investigators with peer-reviewed funding for projects requiring evaluation of specific biospecimens. Prioritization will be as follows:

1. NYU Melanoma SPORE research projects
2. NYU Melanoma SPORE CEP and DRP projects
3. Inter-SPORE projects
4. Other NCI, NIH, DOD, federally funded or American Cancer Society peer-reviewed projects
5. Non-NCI, NIH, DOD, federally funded or American Cancer Society peer-reviewed projects
6. Non-peer reviewed, Industry-sponsored or no funding

If a conflict arises between two (or more) competing interests within the same category (e.g., two SPORE research projects), the committee decides based on the following criteria:

• Amount of tissue (or specimen) available
• Nature of the specimens (primary versus metastases)
• Specific histologic subtype (e.g., acral-focused projects)
• Site specific metastases (e.g., brain met–focused projects)
• How much material is needed for each project
• Availability of the material (e.g., FFPE specimens are more readily available than fresh or frozen tissues)
• Importance of this specific specimen to the project (e.g., 1 specimen of 50 or 1 of 200 needed)
• Necessity of follow-up clinical information linked to the specimen versus only baseline characteristics

For any project that potentially requires prospective collection, the Biospecimen Committee will attempt to acquire enough materials to allow multi-investigator utilization.