Why donate?
Everything from your genetics, treatment stage, and cancer type can affect how a treatment works. Chances are, patients like you are not yet well represented in the cell lines that drug developers rely on today. Your sample changes that.
Cells grown from your sample can be tested against thousands of approved and experimental drugs, revealing which work, for whom, and why. Those results help researchers refine drug candidates and focus on the most promising ones before they ever reach a clinical trial, and lay the groundwork for precision medicine, where each patient knows which drugs are most likely to work for them.
Cancers evolve under treatment, often acquiring resistance to therapies that were once effective. Tumors that have progressed on treatment are among the least represented in research, yet they hold the mechanisms behind that resistance. If your cancer has progressed on a prior therapy, your sample can reveal how it escaped treatment, and point researchers toward therapies built to stay a step ahead.
Your sample becomes part of the research that shapes treatments for people diagnosed after you. Cell lines grown from it can be studied for years, informing work on drugs that are not yet in development.
Your contribution continues long after your donation.
How it works
If you’re already scheduled for a bronchoscopy at a Sharp HealthCare clinic in San Diego, taking part is simple.
A member of the study team walks you through the study, answers your questions, and gives you the full consent form. Taking part is always your choice.
During the procedure you’re already having, your doctor takes two extra small tissue samples, plus a small blood sample. It adds only a few minutes.
Your samples are labeled with a code, not your name, and brought to our lab, where we grow them into living models of your cancer.
Those models are tested against approved and experimental therapies, helping develop better treatments for future patients.
Before you decide
During the bronchoscopy you are already having, the doctor would take up to two extra small tissue samples for research, in addition to the samples taken for your care. You would also give a small amount of blood, up to about 50 mL (about 3.5 tablespoons). We would collect information from your medical record over time. Taking part adds only a few minutes to the procedure you are already having.
The extra tissue samples carry the same kinds of risks as the bronchoscopy you’re already having. The consent form explains these in detail, and the study team will go through them with you.
There is no direct medical benefit to you, and the study is not designed to change your own care. Taking part helps research that may benefit future patients. You won’t receive any financial compensation or share in any commercial profit, and individual research results won’t be returned to you, because the testing is for research only and isn’t used in your medical care.
Your samples and related health information become part of the Anemos Atlas, growing to be the largest research collection of living cancer samples. Your data will be de-identified and used for future cancer and drug development research, or shared with other approved researchers.
Your samples and information are labeled with a code, not your name. The link between the code and your identity is kept securely by your research site.
You can ask the study team anything before you decide, and take as much time as you need. You can also browse our FAQ, where you can send us a question through the form, or reach us at info@anemos.bio.
We’ve received your details and will reach out as we expand donation beyond Sharp HealthCare.
Let us know so we can expand to you.