The Cancer Science Institute of Singapore (CSI) at the National
University of Singapore (NUS) has set up a breast cancer cell bank in
Singapore to help develop better understanding of tumours and treatment
options for breast cancer.
A statement issued
on July 1 by CSI and Philips, a healthcare technology company that made
an unspecified amount of donation to help establish the facility, said
that the bank, the first in Singapore, will house primary culture tumour
cell lines from patients in Singapore and make them available to all
local and regional cancer research centres.
Dr. Pieter Eichhorn, Lead Principal Investigator at the CSI, said: “The
research at CSI will identify novel drug combinations that will overcome
the limitations observed presently, hence leading to better outcomes in
breast cancer patients overall.”
CSI aims to
collect 25 unique breast cancer cell samples by 2015, and establish the
cell bank as a research facility for researchers and clinicians, not
just in Singapore, but internationally.-VNA