PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Prashant Bavi
AU  - Madura Siva
AU  - Tarek Abi-Saab
AU  - Dianne Chadwick
AU  - Neesha Dhani
AU  - Jagdish Butany
AU  - Anthony M Joshua
AU  - Michael H Roehrl
TI  - Developing a pan-cancer research autopsy programme
AID  - 10.1136/jclinpath-2019-205874
DP  - 2019 Oct 01
TA  - Journal of Clinical Pathology
PG  - 689--695
VI  - 72
IP  - 10
4099  - http://jcp.bmj.com/content/72/10/689.short
4100  - http://jcp.bmj.com/content/72/10/689.full
SO  - J Clin Pathol2019 Oct 01; 72
AB  - Aims Rapid procurement of a wide variety of metastatic and primary cancers and normal tissues after death through rapid autopsy opens largely unexplored avenues in cancer research. We describe a high-volume rapid research autopsy programme at a large academic medical centre.Methods Advanced-stage cancer patients, most commonly inpatients in palliative care facilities, were approached to participate in a cancer research autopsy programme with the goal of acquiring multidimensionally annotated tissue for cancer research. On death of an enrolled patient, a predetermined notification plan was enacted, with the medical oncologist/clinical research coordinator informing a team of pathologists, researchers and allied staff. Quality assurance metrics were measured. Thereafter, tissues were annotated in a tissue bioinformatics database and linked to electronic patient records. All banked tissues were reviewed for tumour integrity, including DNA and RNA quality.Results Over 100 rapid research autopsies from diverse cancer sites were performed, and specimens were procured and annotated with detailed clinical information, including treatment and response. Tissues were successfully enabling studies of tumour immunology, xenografts, genomics and proteomics.Conclusions Large-scale rapid procurement and biobanking of cancer tissues from a rapid autopsy programme is feasible. Multidisciplinary integration between health and administrative staff from medical oncology, palliative care, pathology and biospecimen sciences is critical for the success of this challenging endeavour.