Building a Rapid Autopsy Program – A Step-by-Step Logistics Guide
Background: Rapid Autopsy Programs offer an opportunity to collect tissue from patients immediately after death, providing critical biological material necessary to develop more effective therapies and improve patient outcomes. Here, we present a step-by-step guide to build a cancer-focused Rapid Autopsy Program, based on our own experiences building “The Legacy Project” at the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Methods: The linear timeline of events is separated into four phases: 1) Building the Infrastructure, 2) Recruiting and Consenting, 3) Preparing for Death, and 4) Tissue Collection and Follow up. Important considerations and methods for adaptation are discussed throughout the protocol.
Discussion: Using these methods, we successfully collected a total of 533 specimens from 9 subjects. The average time from death to last specimen acquisition was 6.1 hours (range: 4.03 – 7.66 hours; median: 5.71 hours). A diverse team with various areas of expertise is critical for successful program implementation. Our goal herein this protocol is to provide a comprehensive framework and foundation for other institutions to use as a model.
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Due to technical limitations, full-text HTML conversion of this manuscript could not be completed. However, the manuscript can be downloaded and accessed as a PDF.
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Posted 04 Nov, 2020
On 28 Nov, 2020
On 28 Oct, 2020
On 28 Oct, 2020
On 27 Oct, 2020
On 27 Oct, 2020
On 27 Oct, 2020
Building a Rapid Autopsy Program – A Step-by-Step Logistics Guide
Posted 04 Nov, 2020
On 28 Nov, 2020
On 28 Oct, 2020
On 28 Oct, 2020
On 27 Oct, 2020
On 27 Oct, 2020
On 27 Oct, 2020
Background: Rapid Autopsy Programs offer an opportunity to collect tissue from patients immediately after death, providing critical biological material necessary to develop more effective therapies and improve patient outcomes. Here, we present a step-by-step guide to build a cancer-focused Rapid Autopsy Program, based on our own experiences building “The Legacy Project” at the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Methods: The linear timeline of events is separated into four phases: 1) Building the Infrastructure, 2) Recruiting and Consenting, 3) Preparing for Death, and 4) Tissue Collection and Follow up. Important considerations and methods for adaptation are discussed throughout the protocol.
Discussion: Using these methods, we successfully collected a total of 533 specimens from 9 subjects. The average time from death to last specimen acquisition was 6.1 hours (range: 4.03 – 7.66 hours; median: 5.71 hours). A diverse team with various areas of expertise is critical for successful program implementation. Our goal herein this protocol is to provide a comprehensive framework and foundation for other institutions to use as a model.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Due to technical limitations, full-text HTML conversion of this manuscript could not be completed. However, the manuscript can be downloaded and accessed as a PDF.