Help Turn the Tide Against Pancreatic Disease
BIDMC doctors and scientists are searching for biomarkers to detect pancreatic diseases earlier and to improve treatment for future patients. If you have been diagnosed with, or are at risk for, pancreatic disease, you can help.
Data about you and the specimens you provide is critical for research projects to develop better tests and treatments for pancreatitis, pancreatic cancer, and diabetes.
Early diagnosis and treatment is important for people affected by pancreatic diseases. Pancreatitis is the leading cause of hospitalization in the U.S. among people with a disease of their digestive tract, and pancreatic cancer became the 3rd-leading cause of cancer death in 2015.
What is a Biomarker?
Biomarkers are biological substances used to diagnose and treat patients with a disease before standard testing reveals a problem. Biomarkers are associated with diseased tissue and may be found in your blood, urine, or saliva, as well as a diseased pancreas.
Currently, there are no reliable biomarkers for detecting pancreatic diseases.
Samples Needed
- Blood samples
- Urine samples
- Saliva samples
If you require a biopsy or surgery on your pancreas for your standard medical care, we also will store a piece of tissue that is left over after all necessary clinical testing is completed.
Your biological samples and medical information may be used to:
- Identify genes and biomarkers to improve the detection and treatment of pancreatic disease.
- Create biological models predicting the outcome of pancreatic disease.
- Perform studies which have not been invented yet.
We make every effort to draw your blood at the time of other scheduled tests required for your medical care.
Who is eligible?
Participation is voluntary. We hope you will participate because you fall into one of the following categories of people needed to identify a pancreatic disease biomarker:
- Patients with pancreatic disease (such as tumors or cysts, pancreatitis, diabetes)
- People or family members at risk for pancreatic disease
- Healthy people without pancreatic disease
What do we need from you?
- Participation in the research study will not affect your medical care.
- We will review the study and ask you to sign an informed consent form which describes the study in greater detail.
- Answer questions about yourself and your medical history.
- Allow us to review your medical record for information about your medical history.
- Provide samples of blood, urine, and saliva
- Give us permission to store information about you, your medical care, your biological samples, and diagnostic imaging performed during your standard medical care.
- If you have a pancreatic disease, we will contact you during future visits to your doctor where we will update your health information and ask you to provide blood, urine, and saliva samples. We will coordinate
future visits with your standard medical care whenever possible.
- Allow us to contact you about participating in future research studies.
What are the benefits of participating?
- Even though you will not receive any direct benefit from this study, your participation may lead to advancements which will help others in the future.
- We cannot share any results from future research studies performed with your donated samples.
How is my privacy protected?
- Results from these research studies will not go in your medical record.
- All data collected during this study will be kept in a password protected, secure database.
- There is no PHI on the samples that we collect and store for research.
- Access to your information will be limited to researchers and collaborators (inside and outside of BIDMC) who require access for research or compliance and monitoring purposes.
- Information shared about you outside of BIDMC will be strictly limited and tightly controlled.
- You will not be identified in publications resulting from this research study.
What are the risks and costs of participating?
- Pain or bruising at the site of the blood draw, and rarely infection.
- Your personal information might be compromised. We have secure programs and procedures in place to protect your personal information. We will do our best to make sure that the personal information used for this study will be kept private. However, we cannot guarantee total privacy.
- You will not be charged for any procedures or tests performed for research purposes. Our collection of your samples and health information will not create costs to you or your insurance company.
What are my rights?
You may decide not to participate. This decision will not affect your medical care or cause you to lose any benefits.
If you choose to participate, you have the right to leave the study at any time. You have the right to be informed of new information that may affect your willingness to stay in this study. The investigators will contact you with this information if applicable.
To maintain your confidentiality, the results of these research studies will not appear in your medical record.
Contact Information
If you have any questions, please contact the study team at 617-735-2104 or pancbank@bidmc.harvard.edu.
A. James Moser, MD
Co-Director, Pancreas and Liver Institute
Corinne DeCicco
Translational Research Assistant
Tori Singer
Translational Research Assistant
