Rapid Medical Donation Programme for Breast Cancer

Treatment of breast cancer has traditionally been based on the primary tumour's features in the breast. Only recently, when cancer returns at other sites, has there been an attempt to biopsy the metastatic disease and change treatments accordingly. A 'repeat biopsy' can be technically difficult, painful and, when possible, only represents a small sample of one of many metastases. Even when one deposit responds to a new treatment, a neighbouring one may continue to grow. There is an urgent need to characterise all deposits, particularly the lethal ones which progress despite all treatments. This study will enable the comprehensive analysis of the metastatic process and the evolution of the breast cancer through the course of its treatment. Patients who have consented during life to donate their tissues for molecular analysis will provide the means for such an analysis. Main aims: * To comprehensively and systematically examine metastatic breast cancer by its detailed exploratory molecular characterization to elucidate the possible inter- and intratumoural heterogeneity between the primary tumour and the majority of metastatic sites. * To map the natural history of the metastatic breast cancer process