BC Generations Project Open Access Biosample Information

Biosample collection

Blood and urine samples were requested from enrolled participants either during their visit to an assessment centre, at the time of completing the at-home Health & Lifestyle questionnaire or during a participant outreach campaign in 2013-14. Participants were provided a lab requisition to bring to a commercial community medical laboratory (except for participants who visited the Diamond Health Care Centre and a short time at the BCCA Cancer Research Centre Assessment Centre). Blood samples were collected by a certified phlebotomist. All participants were asked to complete a short sample donation questionnaire at the time the sample was collected.

By partnering with three commercial community medical laboratory providers, the BC Generations Project was able to offer participants the ability to donate their samples at one of more than 100 locations throughout the province of British Columbia. The community laboratory provided sample collection, questionnaire collection and door-to-door shipping for arrival at the BC Cancer Agency the following business day.

Recording of biosample preanalytical factors

The BC Generations Project has adopted two preanalytical reporting systems: Biospecimen Reporting for Improved Study Quality (Cancer Cytopathology, 2011 Apr; 119(2)) and Standard Preanalytical Coding for Biospecimens (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev, 2010 Apr; 19(4)). This information is available on all samples in the biorepository. In addition, the Sample Donation questionnaire provides some interpretative information based upon the participant’s status at the time of donation. Summary preanalytical details will be available in a future data release wave.

Available Biosamples