# A global rapid tissue donation network for metastatic disease

Source: https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-bio2-rapid-autopsy-commons/  
OnCo record `idea-bio2-rapid-autopsy-commons` (Idea). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Almost all cancer deaths are caused by spread, yet metastatic tissue is rarely studied because rapid autopsy programmes exist at only a handful of centres. A funded 20-site network with one protocol, one consent framework and open sample access would collect donated tissue within hours of death.

## Summary

Rapid autopsy programmes at a handful of centres have produced disproportionate insight into metastatic evolution and treatment resistance, but they are small, precariously funded and not interoperable. A funded 20-site network with a shared protocol, single consent framework, common data commons and open sample access would industrialise the most information-dense sample type in oncology.

## Fields

- Kind: Idea
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Hypothesis: A shared-protocol network producing 500 multi-site metastatic donations per year yields at least ten validated metastasis-specific dependencies within five years that are absent from primary-tumour datasets.
- Rationale: Large-scale primary tumour atlases transformed cancer biology because scale plus openness beat individual excellence. Metastasis has never had an equivalent: existing metastatic sequencing is mostly single-site biopsy material and lacks the paired multi-organ sampling that organotropism and resistance questions require.
- Proposed test: Fund a three-site pilot to demonstrate short warm-ischaemia protocols, harmonised consent and open data release; measure donations per year, organs per donor and external data requests served.
- Maturity: early-clinical
- Actor: philanthropy

## Sources

- Cancer Grand Challenges: https://cancergrandchallenges.org

## Connected records

- collections: [AACR Project GENIE](https://onco.cc/collections/genie/), [cBioPortal for Cancer Genomics](https://onco.cc/collections/cbioportal/), [TCGA / NCI Genomic Data Commons](https://onco.cc/collections/tcga-gdc/)
- technologies: [Proteomics & phosphoproteomics](https://onco.cc/technologies/proteomics/), [Single-cell & spatial profiling](https://onco.cc/technologies/single-cell-spatial/), [Whole-exome & whole-genome sequencing](https://onco.cc/technologies/wes-wgs/)
- people: [Charles Swanton](https://onco.cc/people/charles-swanton/)
- bottlenecks: [Data silos](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-data-silos/), [Lab models that fail to predict what happens in patients](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-preclinical-models/), [Metastasis is understood least and studied last](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-metastasis-biology/)

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