# Cooperative Human Tissue Network (CHTN)

Source: https://onco.cc/collections/chtn/  
OnCo record `chtn` (Collection). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

A US government-funded network, running since 1987, that collects tissue left over from routine operations and autopsies at six university hospitals and supplies it to researchers, prepared the way each project needs.

## Summary

The CHTN home page, read on 4 November 2026, describes it as a unique NCI-supported resource, supporting discoveries since 1987, that provides human tissues and fluids from routine procedures to investigators. Unlike a tissue bank that stores samples in advance, it works prospectively with each investigator to tailor acquisition and processing to the project: malignant, benign, diseased and normal tissue, biofluids (urine, serum, plasma, buffy coat), supplied fresh, frozen, floating in fixative, in RNAlater, or paraffin-embedded and as unstained slides. Its six divisions are the University of Pennsylvania, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Ohio State University, the University of Virginia, Nationwide Children's Hospital and Duke University. The site sits under NCI's Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis.

## Fields

- Kind: Collection
- Last checked: 2026-11-04
- Also known as: CHTN; NCI Cooperative Human Tissue Network
- URL: https://www.chtn.org/
- Holds: Prospectively collected human tissues and fluids (malignant, benign, diseased and normal) from routine surgeries, autopsies and other procedures, fresh, frozen, fixed, in RNAlater or paraffin-embedded, plus biofluids, procured to each investigator's specification.

## Notes

- The CHTN site carried a US government funding-lapse banner on 4 November 2026 saying information may not be up to date.
- The six divisions are named but not linked: OnCo's records for those universities are their cancer centres, which are not the same units as the CHTN divisions.

## Sources

- Cooperative Human Tissue Network (CHTN): https://www.chtn.org/

## Connected records

- technologies: [Biobanking and tissue procurement](https://onco.cc/technologies/biobanking/)
- institutions: [National Cancer Institute (NIH)](https://onco.cc/institutions/nci/)

---
JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/chtn.json