The key objectives of the National Generic Tumour Bank are to make high quality human tissue samples available to researchers who otherwise would not have access to tissue; to make tissue available at an affordable cost, and finally, to stimulate research in translational research (ie key objectives of target identification and validation). The NGTB, established at the University of Glasgow, would hold primary tumour samples (fresh frozen tumour tissue) from both common and rare cancers, and normal tissue from the same individual (either normal tissue of organ from which tumour arose or from other tissue, usually blood). Samples would be accompanied by histological validation of the specimen and be associated with a limited dataset (age, sex and tumour site). Samples offered to researchers would comprise tissue sections in tubes, tissue sections on slides, DNA and RNA.