Information on BROCADE for researchers

Applications for access to samples and data are carefully reviewed by the BROCADE Access Committee to ensure that the resource supports research of the highest quality. The Access Committee comprises research scientists, clinicians, and community members. 

What the BROCADE resource collects 

There are two streams of tissue collection that make up the BROCADE resource. 

Primary breast tumours 

These are collected from donors who give consent for the use of this tissue in research. Treatment naive as well as heavily pre-treated recurrent tumours are targeted. 

• Fresh primary breast cancer tissue is engrafted to create a resource of PDX lines
• Blood, fresh-frozen and formalin-fixed tissue is available for some cases

Metastatic tissue 

This is collected through the rapid autopsy program. The donors allow tissue to be collected soon after their death. BROCADE collects: 

• Fresh tissue from sites of metastases for PDX engraftment
• Snap-frozen fresh tissue; tumour and normal where available
• Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue; tumour and normal where available
• Genomic DNA from blood
• Clinical data

Tissue microarrays are constructed, which represent the range of metastases for each donor and include adjacent normal tissue. 

Who to contact to ask questions and get more information about BROCADE