Patients, hospitals wrestle over tumor tissue

[Hopeful]

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_stories/20100729_Patients__hospitals_wrestle_over_tumor_ti ssue.html

Hopeful

[Chelee]

Interesting article. I know I just played heck getting my tumor block from a large cancer centre I went too. It was like pulling teeth...I fought for well over a wk to get it. They really were not going to give it to me under any circumstances. I had paper work showing I was going to hand deliever it to USC Path Dept...even that didn't help. I finally had to call UCLA which requested my tumor block and have them intervene before they finally release it too me.

Chelee

[hutchibk]

I found that contacting my surgeon and asking him how to approach it... really helped. He actually had the heads of Pathology at both hospitals where I have tumor stored call me so that I could request with them to store my tumor blocks indefinitely. They both agreed. Told them I would like to have access to them in case I would like to donate tumor to research. They were very responsive and happy to help.