A Brief Description of the Operation of the DoD Serum Repository.

Beginning in 1985, the United States military has consistently maintained repositories of frozen human serum for force health protection reasons. The separate repositories created by the Army, Navy, and Air Force during the startup of their human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) screening programs were fully combined by 1996, along with the Defense Medical Surveillance System, to form the DoD Serum Repository (DoDSR). Currently comprised of 450,000 square feet of storage space at a constant -30 degrees Celsius, the DoDSR, operated by the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center (AFHSC), receives approximately 2 million new serum specimens per year as a result of current HIV screening programs and pre- and post-deployment serum collection.

Description and utilization of the United States department of defense serum repository: a review of published studies, 1985-2012.

Specimens in the United States Department of Defense (DoD) Serum Repository have accumulated in frozen storage since 1985 when the DoD began universal screening for human immunodeficiency virus. Use of the stored serum for health research has been carefully controlled, but the resulting publications have never been systematically identified or described. The Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center (AFHSC) information systems and open (online) sites were used as data sources.

Testicular germ cell tumor susceptibility associated with the UCK2 locus on chromosome 1q23.

Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified multiple common genetic variants associated with an increased risk of testicular germ cell tumors (TGCTs). A previous GWAS reported a possible TGCT susceptibility locus on chromosome 1q23 in the UCK2 gene, but failed to reach genome-wide significance following replication. We interrogated this region by conducting a meta-analysis of two independent GWASs including a total of 940 TGCT cases and 1559 controls for 122 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on chromosome 1q23 and followed up the most significant SNPs in an additional 2202 TGCT cases and 2386 controls from four case-control studies.

Atypical prediagnosis Epstein-Barr virus serology restricted to EBV-positive Hodgkin lymphoma.

An altered anti-Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) serologic profile preceding diagnosis is associated with an increased risk of Hodgkin lymphoma. It is unknown whether this atypical pattern predicts Hodgkin lymphoma risk further subdivided by determination of EBV in tumor cells. A nested case-control study of 128 incident Hodgkin lymphoma cases and 368 matched controls from active-duty military personnel with archived serum in the US Department of Defense Serum Repository was conducted to determine whether a panel of anti-EBV antibody titers differed in EBV(+) and EBV(-) Hodgkin lymphoma.