Research on metastatic cancer has been hampered by limited sample availability. Here we present the breast cancer post-mortem tissue donation program UPTIDER and show how it enabled sampling of a median of 31 (range: 5-90) metastases and 5-8 liquids per patient from its first 20 patients. In a dedicated experiment, we show the mild impact of increasing time after death on RNA quality, transcriptional profiles and immunohistochemical staining in tumor tissue samples. We show that this impact can be counteracted by organ cooling. We successfully generated ex vivo models from tissue and liquid biopsies from distinct histological subtypes of breast cancer. We anticipate these and future findings of UPTIDER to elucidate mechanisms of disease progression and treatment resistance and to provide tools for the exploration of precision medicine strategies in the metastatic setting.
Détails
Titre
Rapid autopsies to enhance metastatic research: the UPTIDER post-mortem tissue donation program
Grant
Klinische Onderzoeks- en Opleidingsraad (KOOR) of University Hospitals Leuven (Uitzonderlijke Financiering 2020) C1 of KU Leuven: C14/21/114 Research Foundation Flanders: 101055422 Luxemburg Cancer Foundation Fund Nadine de Beauffort European Research Council (ERC): 2016-054 ASCO/Lobular Breast Cancer Alliance Young Investigator Award Belgian Cancer Foundation KOOR Biltema ISREC Foundation Stichting Tegen Kanker Cancera Stiftelsen Grand Challenges Program of VIB Mats Paulssons Stiftelse European Union's Horizon 2020 Research, the Innovation Programme Stiftelsen Stefan Paulssons Cancerfond KU Leuven internal fund Swiss Cancer League: G0B6120N ERC fund H2020-MSCA-ITN European Union's FET Proactive program Belgian Cancer Foundation: KFS-4738-02-2019-R COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) action LOBSTERPOT European Research Council under the ERC FWO: VR 2016 2312 Doc.1521/4 Beug Foundation Fonds Baillet Latour KU Leuven 1297322 N G093821N C/2020/1529 C14/18/092 C14/22/125 731957 CA19138 FWO: 1S76522N 2020-103 ITN-2019-859860-CANCERPREV 101112780