Pediatric brain cancer research is not proceeding as fast as it could. One of the barriers is the scarcity of autopsy tissue. Researchers need brain tissue to study tumors and develop therapies to treat them. Many families choose autopsy tissue donation as a way to take a final stand against their child’s cancer.
An autopsy tissue donation is the same as a post-mortem tissue donation. If you are a family of a child with terminal brain cancer, or a physician treating a child with terminal brain cancer and you would like to initiate a post-mortem tissue donation, we can help you do that.
We have partnered with the Gift from a Child, a program of the Swifty Foundation, that has created a network of Centers of Excellence that accept tissue donations. Centers of Excellence are labs affiliated with the Children’s Brain Tumor Tissue Consortium (CBTTC). Each of these labs has the expertise to process a whole brain donation as well as develop cell lines and mouse models from the tissue.
Each site has a Tissue Navigator staff trained to advise families through the donation process. They will answer questions and will coordinate all aspects of the donation should a family choose to donate tissue.
If you would like to talk to a family who has walked this path before you, Gift from a Child can match you with a parent or caregiver of a family whose child has donated tissue. This one-on-one relationship gives you an opportunity to ask personal questions as you consider the decision to donate, and it can offer support and empathy at a terribly difficult time in your family’s life.
Please read our information for physicians and for families.
Call 1-844-456-GIFT or email: info@GiftFromAChild.org to ask questions or to be placed in contact with a tissue navigator affiliated with the Children’s Brain Tumor Tissue Consortium.
RESOURCES
Please read the Nature news feature story Tissue Bank Shortage: Brain Child to understand the importance of tissue donation for finding cures.
The study on collection of autopsy tissue from children with DIPG presents data (from 2010) on the researchers’ efforts to collect the tissue.