Serum Samples

The Department of Defense Serum Repository (DoDSR) was established in 1989 to house the serum remaining after the mandatory Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) screening which began in 1985. To date, over 74 million serum specimens have been collected on 12 million service members. The DoD Serum Repository is considered as the largest of its kind in the world. At present, over 6 million serum specimens across the 893,941service members have been collected for individuals in the Military Aviators Cancer Study (MACS).

The DoD's policies regarding HIV screening and rescreening have changed over time, with varying guidelines across the military services. A major milestone occurred in 2004, when a uniform HIV testing policy was established, mandating testing every two years for service members. Prior to this, pre- and post-major deployment testing protocols were initiated in 1997.

Once specimens are collected, they are transported to the nearest medical facility laboratory for processing. They are then refrigerated and shipped to the designated HIV testing center. After testing, the residual amount of serum is placed in a tube, frozen, and transferred to AFHSC for storage at -30 °C. If a vial is selected for a subsequent study, it is thawed and allocated into 0.5mL aliquot vials. The vial is then labeled and refrozen.

89% of the participants in the Military Aviators Cancer Study (MACS) have at least one available collection.

Table 1: Number of vials drawn and available for MACS Phase 2

Table 2: Summary statistics of service members and serum collection