Ever since its laboratory activities were discontinued, the Cancer Society of Finland has accumulated large quantities of biological samples. The sample collections are the result of work carried out in laboratories in Helsinki, Kotka, Oulu and Tampere. The Cancer Society still receives requests for information from other healthcare institutions that concern stored samples and patient data. The screening coordinator is responsible for data storage and for responding to requests for information. The material is archived in chronological and numerical order in the CSF’s repositories in Helsinki and the Cancer Foundation’s facility in Oulu. The Helsinki repository contains 785 500 tissue blocks (from some 400 000 patients) from 1967–2011, 719 500 cervical cancer screening slides from 1978–2011 and 919 710 cervical cancer screening cards from 1986–2009. The Oulu facility contains 875 700 tissue blocks and slides from 1966 onwards, 340 000 cervical cancer screening slides from 2002 onwards and 404 630 other cytological slides. An investigation has been made as to the possibility of incorporating the sample collections into an existing or a new biobank. The CSF has already negotiated with Helsinki Biobank regarding samples from its area of operations.
