{"id":319945,"date":"2026-06-25T22:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T22:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/319945\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T22:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T22:06:08","slug":"charlotte-county-firefighter-jay-sanders-tissue-donation-advances-cancer-research-at-moffitt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/319945\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlotte County firefighter Jay Sanders\u2019 tissue donation advances cancer research at Moffitt"},"content":{"rendered":"

SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB<\/a>) – Firefighter\/Paramedic Jan A. \u201cJay\u201d Sanders Jr., who served Charlotte County for more than 35 years, died June 18 after what the agency described as occupational cancer. After his death, Sanders was transported to Moffitt Cancer Center to donate tissue for cancer research.<\/p>\n

Sanders\u2019 donation is part of Moffitt\u2019s rapid tissue donation program, which has been operating for about 10 years and has identified new mutations never before documented in peer-reviewed literature.<\/p>\n

Matthew Schabath, program leader for cancer epidemiology at Moffitt, said the program has consented about 160 patients and completed about 90 tissue collections to date.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s relatively uncommon,\u201d Schabath said, citing space limitations and the program\u2019s focus on specific patient populations. \u201cWe only have one autopsy suite. So we\u2019re really limited on space.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program, called Targeted Autopsy Collections, or TACs, partners with patients, their doctors and researchers to study patients through their entire journey from diagnosis through treatment to end of life.<\/p>\n

Unlike organ donation listed on driver\u2019s licenses, the program collects tissue samples from areas where cancer was present and from healthy tissue where cancer was not. It does not remove entire organs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to collect tissue from the involved, where that cancer may be, or healthy tissues, where maybe the cancer was not,\u201d Schabath said. \u201cBut we\u2019re not removing entire organs. We\u2019re just removing large amounts of tissue to allow us to study this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funeral Service for Firefighter\/Paramedic Jay Sanders<\/a><\/p>\n

The process is complex and expensive. Moffitt\u2019s operations team coordinates with patients\u2019 families, transports deceased patients to the facility for collection, and then transports tissue back to the family\u2019s desired location.<\/p>\n

Charlotte County Fire & EMS will honor Sanders during his \u201cLast Alarm\u201d on Thursday, June 25, 2026, at noon at the Charlotte Harbor Event & Conference Center, 75 Taylor St., in Punta Gorda. Doors will open at 11:30 a.m. The service will be livestreamed.<\/p>\n

Following the service, firefighters, first responders and public safety personnel from across the region will participate in a procession honoring Sanders\u2019 life and legacy. The public is encouraged to safely line the route to pay respects.<\/p>\n

Sanders served as a firefighter, paramedic, mentor and friend to Charlotte County citizens and visitors. He was also an Honor Guard member and deployed to wildland fires across the western United States.<\/p>\n

A memorial for Sanders was placed outside Charlotte County Fire & EMS headquarters on Airport Road in Punta Gorda. Engine 15, described as Sanders\u2019 last assigned apparatus, was draped in mourning bunting.<\/p>\n

After Sanders was transported to Moffitt for tissue donation, first responders lined parts of Interstate 75 from Tampa to Charlotte County to honor him as he was brought back home.<\/p>\n

Moffitt\u2019s major research areas are lung cancer and gastrointestinal diseases, driven by available research funding. Schabath said Sanders\u2019 donation qualified for the program based on his disease type and treatment.<\/p>\n

The program initially focused on lung cancer patients before expanding institution-wide about two and a half years ago following a grant from the state of Florida.<\/p>\n

The state of Florida grant has allowed Moffitt to expand the program\u2019s infrastructure, moving from Excel spreadsheets to cloud-based systems for real-time data tracking and patient management.<\/p>\n

Moffitt is currently investigating how to accept patients from outside the institution. All patients who have consented and donated to date have been Moffitt patients, but the center hopes to eventually offer the program to people throughout Florida.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s obviously legal and ethical issues, and so we are investigating, and we\u2019re hoping one day we\u2019ll be able to offer this to people throughout the state of Florida,\u201d Schabath said.<\/p>\n

People interested in donating tissue after death from cancer can contact Moffitt at rapidtissuedonation@moffitt.org.<\/p>\n

Cancer patients who are registered organ donors may not qualify for traditional organ donation but could qualify for tissue donation through the rapid tissue donation program.<\/p>\n

Moffitt is also developing a toolkit with standard operating procedures that it plans to share with other institutions in Florida and across the country, allowing them to establish similar programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re the premier cancer center in the state of Florida, so we\u2019re willing to work with anybody in the state or outside the state to help get this up and running,\u201d Schabath said.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 WWSB. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) – Firefighter\/Paramedic Jan A. \u201cJay\u201d Sanders Jr., who served Charlotte County for more than 35…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[132838,209,211,210,132834,132835,132836,132837],"class_list":["post-319945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cancer-epidemiology-research","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-enter-tissue-donation","tag-rapid-tissue-donation-program","tag-search-tissue-collection","tag-targeted-autopsy-collections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}