Making personalized medicine a reality: the challenges of a modern translational research biopsy-driven program in an academic setting: the Segal Cancer Center experience

The success of personalized medicine in the oncology clinic is very dependent on the results from a translational research effort to identify individual and host molecular biomarkers to enable proper selection of anti-cancer therapy. For this to happen, it is necessary to obtain timely access to high-quality biological samples of both host and tumor tissues and biological fluids. At the Segal Cancer Center, we have initiated several prospective sample collections based on research-driven breast biopsies in different contexts, including primary and metastatic breast lesions in patients receiving specific treatments. We here describe some of the challenges involved in such a translational research program and our experience in setting up biopsy-driven research protocols, highlighting the human aspects of conducting these complex enterprises.