Biobanking has become an indispensable tool for translational research and health innovations. While the field of biobanking has progressed and evolved globally, biobanking in developing Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries such as the Philippines remains underrepresented because of several challenges often encountered in these low- and middle-income countries. Recently, the Philippine government has undertaken enormous efforts to advancing research and development in the country, and one of the current research pursuits is the establishment of biobanks, with the hope of attaining more discoveries and innovations in the future. Given that cancer remains a leading cause of death in the Philippines, the Philippine government supported the establishment of a cancer biobank at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH). In this study, we present a specific use case of biobanking activity at the PGH Biobank, to build a cohort of biospecimens from Filipino patients with breast, endometrial, and ovarian cancer. This initiative is part of a biomonitoring study (1) to assess environmental exposures and possible risk factors in the Philippine population and (2) to develop a system of culturing human cells from Filipino patients for subsequent in vitro studies. We discuss issues faced and the solutions developed during the implementation of the biobank. Strong research collaboration, a funding source, basic infrastructure, and appropriate technology helped initiate this pilot biobank in the Philippines. Overall, the experiences of establishing the PGH Biobank may help other institutions in low-resource countries to set up cancer biobanks.

中文翻译：

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资源匮乏的东南亚环境中的先导性癌症-现象生物库系统：菲律宾综合医院生物库经验。

生物银行已经成为转化研究和健康创新的必不可少的工具。尽管生物银行领域在全球范围内发展进步，但是由于这些低收入和中等收入国家经常遇到一些挑战，因此发展中的东南亚国家联盟（ASEAN）国家（如菲律宾）的生物银行人数仍然不足。最近，菲律宾政府为促进该国的研究和开发付出了巨大的努力，目前的研究追求之一是建立生物库，以期在将来获得更多的发现和创新。鉴于癌症仍然是菲律宾的主要死亡原因，菲律宾政府支持在菲律宾总医院（PGH）建立癌症生物库。在这个研究中，我们将在PGH Biobank上介绍生物银行活动的特定用例，以建立来自患有乳腺癌，子宫内膜癌和卵巢癌的菲律宾患者的生物标本队列。该计划是生物监测研究的一部分（1）评估菲律宾人群的环境暴露和可能的危险因素，以及（2）开发培养菲律宾患者的人体细胞以用于后续治疗的系统体外研究。我们讨论了在实施生物库过程中面临的问题和提出的解决方案。强有力的研究合作，资金来源，基础设施和适当的技术帮助在菲律宾启动了这一试点生物库。总体而言，建立PGH生物库的经验可能会帮助资源贫乏国家的其他机构建立癌症生物库。