Kuguyo et al. BMC Cancer (2022) 22:1320 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-022-10413-w RESEARCH © The Author(s) 2022. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativeco mmons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. Open Access A cervical cancer biorepository for pharmacogenomics research in Zimbabwe Oppah Kuguyo 1* , Nyasha Chambwe 2 , Charles F. B. Nhachi 1 , Nomsa Tsikai 3 , Collet Dandara 4 and Alice Matimba 1 Abstract Background: Research infrastructures such as biorepositories are essential to facilitate genomics and its grow- ing applications in health research and translational medicine in Africa. Using a cervical cancer cohort, this study describes the establishment of a biorepository consisting of biospecimens and matched phenotype data for use in genomic association analysis and pharmacogenomics research. Method: Women aged > 18 years with a recent histologically confirmed cervical cancer diagnosis were recruited. A workflow pipeline was developed to collect, store, and analyse biospecimens comprising donor recruitment and informed consent, followed by data and biospecimen collection, nucleic acid extraction, storage of genomic DNA, genetic characterization, data integration, data analysis and data interpretation. The biospecimen and data stor- age infrastructure included shared -20 °C to -80 °C freezers, lockable cupboards, secured access-controlled laptop, password protected online data storage on OneDrive software. The biospecimen or data storage, transfer and sharing were compliant with the local and international biospecimen and data protection laws and policies, to ensure donor privacy, trust, and benefits for the wider community. Results: This initial establishment of the biorepository recruited 410 women with cervical cancer. The mean (± SD) age of the donors was 52 (± 12) years, comprising stage I (15%), stage II (44%), stage III (47%) and stage IV (6%) disease. The biorepository includes whole blood and corresponding genomic DNA from 311 (75.9%) donors, and tumour biospecimens and corresponding tumour DNA from 258 (62.9%) donors. Datasets included information on sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle, family history, clinical information, and HPV genotype. Treatment response was followed up for 12 months, namely, treatment-induced toxicities, survival vs. mortality, and disease status, that is disease-free survival, progression or relapse, 12 months after therapy commencement. Conclusion: The current work highlights a framework for developing a cancer genomics cohort-based biorepository on a limited budget. Such a resource plays a central role in advancing genomics research towards the implementa- tion of personalised management of cancer. Keywords: Cervical cancer, Cancer Biobanks, Biorepository, Africa, Zimbabwe, Pharmacogenomics, Genomics Introduction Biorepositories have advanced genomics research in the developing world, by providing access to a readily avail- able pool of systematic, harmonised, and high-quality bio- specimens and associated phenotype data [1, 2]. In clinical research, adequate recruitment is critical to ensure suffi- cient study power and to competently answer the research question [2]. Equally so, insufficient participant reten- tion during recruitment affects the conclusiveness of *Correspondence: o.kuguyo@gmail.com 1 Clinical Pharmacology Department, University of Zimbabwe College of Health Sciences, Avondale, Mazowe Street, Harare, Zimbabwe Full list of author information is available at the end of the article