A study looking at blood and tissue samples to learn more about advanced cancer (PEACE)

Cancer type:

All cancer types

Brain (and spinal cord) tumours

Brain tumour (primary)

Status:

Open

Phase:

Other

This study is asking people to agree to have samples taken of their cancer after their death. It is for people who have a brain tumour or a solid tumour cancer that has spread elsewhere in the body.

Cancer Research UK supports this study.

More about this trial

Doctors want to understand more about advanced cancer. One way of doing this is to look in more detail at the cancer.

In this study, the researchers will collect samples of your cancer after your death. You also have blood samples taken at different points during the study and after your death.

The aim of this study is to understand more about the changes that happen in a person’s cancer. The doctors will look at samples from where your cancer first started and any other areas where it may have spread to. They will also study cancer cells and DNA found in your blood.

They hope this will help them understand

how cancer develops and spreads
how and why treatment stops working
how the body reacts in the final stages of cancer

You will not directly benefit from taking part in this study. But the results may help people with cancer in the future. For example, by seeing if there are new ways to boost the immune system to fight cancer.

Who can enter

The following bullet points list the entry conditions for this study. Talk to your doctor or the study team if you are unsure about any of these. They will be able to advise you.

You may be able to join this study if you are at least 18 years old and you have one of the following

Any type of cancer (a solid tumour) except leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma and this cancer that has spread elsewhere in the body (advanced cancer)
A brain tumour

You cannot join this study if any of these apply. You

Have, or have had, a serious infection such as hepatitis C, tuberculosis or Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease
Are HIV positive
Have a history of intravenous drug abuse in the last 5 years
Have any other medical condition or mental health problem that would prevent you from consenting to take part

Please note: This study may not be suitable for you if your wish is to be buried or cremated within a certain period of time after death.

Trial design

The researchers aim to collect the blood and tissue samples of at least 500 people over 5 years. In order to do this, they may need more than 500 people to join the trial.

Blood samples
You have a blood sample taken when you:

join the study
see the doctor for follow up appointments

Where possible, you have this at the same time as your routine blood tests. You may be able to have to blood sample taken at home.

You might also have a blood sample taken after your death.

Tissue samples
The main part of this study will happen after you have died. An expert called a pathologist will collect some samples (biopsies) of your cancer. They aim to do this within 24 to 48 hours of your death.

The sample collection takes place in the hospital mortuary. If you die outside of hospital, your body is transferred to hospital so that the samples can be taken.

The pathologist collects small samples of all areas of cancer in the body. They also collect small samples of normal tissue. These can be compared to the cancer samples. The sample might be photographed to keep a record of where in the body it was taken from.

All the biopsy areas are sutured (stitched). Your family or friends can then arrange collection of your body for cremation or burial.

All samples
These samples are matched with information about your cancer and treatment. If you agree, the study team will also look at stored samples of your cancer. These may have been taken when you had surgery or a biopsy.

The results of any genetic tests will not have an impact on your family. They will not be told about any results.

All blood and tissue samples are anonymised and stored in a secure place. The medical information and photographs are stored on a secure database. No one can link the study results to you.

When the study has finished, your samples are stored. These samples may be used for future research

Hospital visits

You go to hospital to have your blood samples taken. It may be possible to arrange this at a time when you have a routine appointment. So you don’t have to make an extra journey.

Side effects

This study does not involve a treatment and so there are no side effects associated with taking part.

You may have some temporary bruising and bleeding at the site of your blood test.

You might find it upsetting to talk about your death and about what you want to happen with your family and friends. You can discuss any concerns or questions with the study team.

Location

Cambridge

Harlow

London

Manchester

Early results

In 2023 the research team published early (interim) results for the PEACE study. These results are for people with melanoma skin cancer. There is a summary below.

The team plan to publish more results for people with other types of cancer. We will update this page when more results are available.

Results
These results are for 14 people who had advanced melanoma skin cancer.

They had all had treatment with a type of immunotherapy called an immune checkpoint inhibitor. This treatment had stopped working and their melanoma had continued to grow.

The research team took 573 samples of cancer cells from 14 people after they had died. They looked for changes and patterns in the genetic material within the cells.

Genes are coded messages that tell each cell what to do and how to behave. Changes in the genes can mean the cells don’t behave as they should.

The results of this study showed there were often changes in the order, structure or number of copies of genes.

These changes mean the immune system doesn’t recognise the cancer cells. So they become resistant to immunotherapy treatments and can spread to other areas of the body.

They concluded that there are often genetic changes in advanced melanoma cells that can affect how well treatment works.

More detailed information
There is more information about this research in the reference below.

Please note, the article we link to here is not in plain English. It has been written for healthcare professionals and researchers.

Late-stage metastatic melanoma emerges through a diversity of evolutionary pathways
L Spain and others
Cancer Discovery, 2023. Volume 13, issue 6, pages 1364 to 1385.

Where this information comes from
We have based this summary on information from the research team. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed Open a glossary item ) and published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team who did the research. We have not analysed the data ourselves.