The PEACE (Posthumous Evaluation of Advanced Cancer Environment) Study

The PEACE (Posthumous Evaluation of Advanced Cancer Environment) Study

Historically, cancer research has been limited by sample acquisition in late stage disease, often restricted to single sites of disease with limited parallel clinical data collection in terms of prior therapy exposure. The PEACE study is intended to facilitate tissue donation from multiple tumour sites in the post-mortem setting and enable future research using samples collected at post-mortem within different disciplines related to cancer research.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age 18 years or older
• Confirmed diagnosis of any form of solid malignancy with metastatic disease (where the site of origin is known or unknown), with the exception of primary brain tumour in which there may not be evidence of metastatic disease
• Oral and written informed consent from patient to enter the study and to undergo tumour harvesting after death or informed consent from a person in a qualifying relationship after the patient has died.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Medical or psychiatric condition that would preclude informed consent
• History of intravenous drug abuse within the last 5 years
• History of known high-risk infections (e.g. HIV/AIDS-positive, hepatitis B/C, tuberculosis and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease).