PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A new nonprofit cooperative tumor bank for cancer research is up and running in Oregon, thanks to the efforts of a breast cancer patient who died last month.
Treva Hoffman said that before she died she wanted to contribute to the effort to beat cancer. Her sister tells The Oregonian that that became her purpose in enduring cancer’s pain.
The family and friends organized fundraisers and started the TREVA Project, designed to encourage and enable hospitals around the state to contribute cancer tissue to a central, nonprofit tumor bank at Legacy Health in Portland.
Scientists say a shortage of cancer tissue is a major stumbling block to research, and for-profit tumor banks charge up to $2,000 a sample.
