{"entity":{"id":"idea-bio2-survivor-plasma-biobank","kind":"idea","name":"Bank yearly blood from cancer survivors so future tests can be validated","aka":[],"tldr":"To prove a leftover-cancer test works you need blood taken years before relapse. Collecting and freezing yearly samples now makes every future test testable.","summary":"Every new MRD or early detection assay needs pre-diagnostic or pre-relapse serial specimens, which take years to accumulate and cannot be created retrospectively. A prospective survivor cohort of 50,000 people banking annual plasma, with registry-linked outcomes and open access rules, would become the shared validation substrate for the whole field.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"Bottleneck evidence (Dormant cells and minimal residual disease): Tie et al., ctDNA analysis guiding adjuvant therapy in stage II colon cancer (NEJM 2022)","url":"https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2200075"}],"tags":[],"related":["seer","cbioportal"],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":["liquid-biopsy","mrd-testing","mced"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":["mrd","ctdna"],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":["b-dormancy-mrd","b-data-silos","b-early-detection"],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"hypothesis":"A serial survivor plasma bank with linked outcomes shortens the validation cycle for a new MRD assay from five years to under one, and is used by at least ten independent developers within five years of opening.","rationale":"The UK Biobank and PLCO-style cohorts demonstrate that pre-event specimen collections become disproportionately valuable over time and are impossible to replicate quickly. Survivors are highly motivated donors and are already in follow-up pathways.","test":"Pilot in 2,000 survivors at high recurrence risk with annual draws for three years; measure retention, cost per sample-year, and number of external validation studies enabled.","maturity":"speculative","actor":"data","cost":"medium","horizonYears":8},"route":"/ideas/idea-bio2-survivor-plasma-biobank/","neighbours":{"collection":[{"id":"cbioportal","kind":"collection","name":"cBioPortal for Cancer Genomics","route":"/collections/cbioportal/"},{"id":"seer","kind":"collection","name":"SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results)","route":"/collections/seer/"}],"technology":[{"id":"liquid-biopsy","kind":"technology","name":"Liquid biopsy (ctDNA)","route":"/technologies/liquid-biopsy/"},{"id":"mrd-testing","kind":"technology","name":"MRD / molecular residual disease testing","route":"/technologies/mrd-testing/"},{"id":"mced","kind":"technology","name":"Multi-cancer early detection (MCED)","route":"/technologies/mced/"}],"term":[{"id":"ctdna","kind":"term","name":"Circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA)","route":"/terms/ctdna/"},{"id":"mrd","kind":"term","name":"Minimal / molecular residual disease (MRD)","route":"/terms/mrd/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-data-silos","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Data silos","route":"/bottlenecks/b-data-silos/"},{"id":"b-dormancy-mrd","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Dormant cells and minimal residual disease","route":"/bottlenecks/b-dormancy-mrd/"},{"id":"b-early-detection","kind":"bottleneck","name":"The hardest cancers are found late","route":"/bottlenecks/b-early-detection/"}]}}