The Adolescent and Childhood Cancer Epidemiology and Susceptibility Service (ACCESS) for Texas

The purpose of this core facility is to collect biological samples from children with cancer and collect DNA from the parents of children with cancer, children without cancer, or parents of children without cancer to gain a better understanding of how childhood cancers develop.

The parents of children with cancer will also complete a risk factor questionnaire about exposures that the child or parents may have had in the past.

There are no restrictions on the types of cancers to be enrolled; however, the numbers of each cancer in ACCESS will reflect the incidence in Texas. In addition to blood or saliva samples collected for DNA analyses, plasma samples at several time points during therapy are also being collected. Associated epidemiological and clinical data can be linked to the samples to provide a rich resource for studying the risk factors for childhood cancers.

This research is being done across multiple sites in Texas:

• Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston, TX
• Children’s Hospital of San Antonio, San Antonio, TX
• University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX
• Vannie E. Cook Jr. Children’s Cancer and Hematology Clinic, McAllen, TX
• Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso, El Paso, TX
• Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, TX
• Cook Children’s Medical Center, Fort Worth, TX