The rapidly expanding era of 'mics' -based studies is highly dependent on the availability of high-quality biological material, particularly for rare conditions such as pediatric malignancies. The main challenge of pediatric cancer biobanks is the high diversity and rare tumors, as well as the limited volume of blood and tissue in children. Children's tumors have higher molecular heterogeneity and a unique genomic panel, so all these cases make this type of biobanks special and require attention.

The aim of this plan is to set up a centralized biobank to collect a variety of biological samples in children with cancer in the age range of 0 to 18 years.

Iranian Children's Cancer Biobank ( ICCBB ) is the first pediatric biobank center in Iran that collects biological samples along with relevant clinical data from patients with a wide range of childhood cancers.

The overall goal of ICCBB is to facilitate the advancement of basic and advanced clinical research in the field of pediatric cancer by providing the required quantity and quality of biological samples. In order to achieve this goal, after preparing the infrastructure, buying and installing the equipment needed for the biobank, first the ethical committee and then briefing meetings with surgeons, oncologists and pathologists of the centers were held. Then, necessary SOPs were defined for all aspects of the biobank process, including collection, processing and storage of samples and recording of clinical data.

The operation of setting up and equipping the children's cancer biobank at Mofid Hospital in Tehran started in September 2016 and it actually entered the sample collection phase from December 2017. Until today, July 1401, a total of about 8,000 samples from 720 patients have entered the biobank. Collecting and storing a variety of biological samples from patients ( including plasma, PBMC , serum, urine, hair and plasma and PBMC samples of parents) and cooperation with centers outside Tehran (Mashhad and Urmia) are among the unique activities of the biobank. is. In summary, the samples in the biobank are classified into three categories: leukemia, solid tumors, and central nervous system ( CNS ) tumors. Patients diagnosed with leukemia are about 41% and 294 patients, solid tumors are about 40% and 284 patients, and CNS tumors.  About 16% and 112 patients of the volume of biobank samples have been allocated to themselves. Among these, 82% of the samples entered in the biobank belong to newly diagnosed patients and 18% belong to relapsed patients. In terms of age, the most cases belong to the age group of 0-4 years with 301 cases (169 boys and 132 girls). In addition to biological materials, ICCBB records clinical and paraclinical information of patient samples entered into the biobank in the online database of the biobank. All in all, despite the challenging nature of the project, since a children's cancer biobank with this volume of sample diversity and foreign collaborations has never existed in Iran, the experiences gained from the establishment and management of this biobank can be used for similar projects as well as May the continuation of the biobank itself be productive in the future.