Metastatic cancer represents the main cause of death in patients with cancer. However, basic and translational research is hampered by the limited availability of metastatic samples. In this context, post-mortem tissue donation programmes represent a complementary and attractive solution. Here, we highlight the opportunities and challenges, and outline why we believe this represents a global effort.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Coates, J. T. et al. Parallel genomic alterations of antigen and payload targets mediate polyclonal acquired clinical resistance to sacituzumab govitecan in triple-negative breast cancer. Cancer Discov. 11, 2436–2445 (2021).
Garcia-Recio, S. et al. Multiomics in primary and metastatic breast tumors from the AURORA US network finds microenvironment and epigenetic drivers of metastasis. Nat. Cancer 4, 128–147 (2023).
Geukens, T. et al. Intra-patient and inter-metastasis heterogeneity of HER2-low status in metastatic breast cancer. Eur. J. Cancer 188, 152–160 (2023).
Hessey, S., Fessas, P., Zaccaria, S., Jamal-Hanjani, M. & Swanton, C. Insights into the metastatic cascade through research autopsies. Trends Cancer 9, 490–502 (2023).
Cresswell, G. D. et al. Mapping the breast cancer metastatic cascade onto ctDNA using genetic and epigenetic clonal tracking. Nat. Commun. 11, 1446 (2020).
De Mattos-Arruda, L. et al. The genomic and immune landscapes of lethal metastatic breast cancer. Cell Rep. 27, 2690–2708 (2019).
Al Bakir, M. et al. The evolution of non-small cell lung cancer metastases in TRACERx. Nature 616, 534–542 (2023).
Geukens, T. et al. Research autopsy programmes in oncology: shared experience from 14 centres across the world. J. Pathol. https://doi.org/10.1002/path.6271 (2024).
Quinn, G. P. et al. Altruism in terminal cancer patients and rapid tissue donation program: does the theory apply? Med. Health Care Philos. 16, 857–64 (2013).
Acknowledgements
The authors want to acknowledge the Research Autopsy and Procurement Society as well as M. Maetens, F. Richard and the rest of the team of the UPTIDER programme (NCT04531696) for the insightful discussions and feedback.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Desmedt, C., Carey, L.A. Global post-mortem tissue donation programmes to accelerate cancer research. Nat Rev Cancer 24, 289–290 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41568-024-00683-w
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41568-024-00683-w