September 4, 2001

Members American Society of Head & Neck Surgery

Dear Colleague:
I am writing to members of the American Society of Head and Neck Surgery. We at Wake Forest University have had a family make a bequest to be used for advancement of research and information dissemination on acinic cell carcinoma of he salivary glands. We have established a tissue bank in our Comprehensive Cancer Center to collect specimens from patients with salivary acinic cell carcinoma. This tissue banked will be available to any researcher for projects on acinic cell carcinoma by sending an application detailing the proposed research goals and summary protocol to be judged by our tissue bank committee.

The purpose of this letter is to alert individuals treating patients with this rather unusual tumor that such a tissue banks exists, and to ask for cooperation in sending specimens which have been flash frozen in liquid nitrogen and placed in a cryo vial to the Wake Forest University Comprehensive Cancer Center Tissue Bank, Medical Center Blvd.,Winston-Salem, NC 27157, ATTN: Gilda Saluta, phone number 336-716-3721.

Acquisition of sufficient numbers of specimens will make possible subsequent availability of the tissue by application to the Tissue Committee, Wake Forest University Cancer Center at the same address. Each specimen should be at least 1/2 to 1 gram of tissue. For large tumors, a larger portion would be appreciated. These specimens will be maintained with anonymity as to the donor and patient. A pathology report not identified with the patient's name, but with a unit number for pathological inquiry informational purposes should be forwarded also.

Thank you for your consideration of this request for sharing tissue from this rare tumor. I hope that this will be a successful endeavor that might provide a research resource for you in the future.

If there are any investigational or informational activities ongoing at your institution relative to acinic cell carcinoma, please indicate in a separate letter to me the name and address of the individual doing this work and the nature of the work, so that this can be incorporated into a database for dissemination on a website. This will be a second component of activity supported by the gift from this patient's family.

Sincerely,W. Fred McGuirt, M.D.
James A. Harrill Professor & Chair
Department of Otolaryngology
Wake Forest University

WFM:dbh

PS: If you have a colleague or partner this request would be more appropriate for, please share it with them.

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