Cancer drug data release expected to fuel next wave of therapeutic discoveries

July 26, 2019

pharmaceuticals

The freely available dataset includes a comparison of responses from nearly 1,000 cancer cell lines to 453 licensed and experimental drugs.

The Genomics of Drug Sensitivity in Cancer project released the results of four years of data collection and exploration aimed at fueling genetic research in cancer treatment around the world.

The freely available dataset includes a comparison of responses from nearly 1,000 cancer cell lines to 453 authorized and experimental drugs.

The project, led by researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute (United Kingdom) and Mbadachusetts General Hospital (USA), builds on the study of the past six years and nearly doubles the volume of new data. available on the website, the largest public dataset of its kind. in the world.

Mathew Garnett, co-director of the project and group leader at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, commented, "We are delighted to have been able to create and disseminate this valuable data to the global cancer research community. Our genomics database of drug susceptibility to cancer is the world's largest directory of information on the influence of the underlying genomic landscape of cancer on its response to treatment. We hope that it will provide new information that will indicate new ways to target and treat individual tumors. "

Database

This new publication brings the amount of data freely available and freely available on the website to 453 cancer treatment compounds, 989 cancer cell lines, 494,973 genomic badociations tested and 386,293 dose-response drug curves.

The previous study had already made discoveries that had led to trials of PARP inhibitors in childhood bone cancer, directly contributed to the development of drugs in the pharmaceutical industry and fueled 70 research studies in the world.

Every day, more than 350 users access the datasets, which should increase with the new release of data. The project team hopes that this improved resource will fuel the discoveries and treatment options for many years to come.

The perfect biomarker

The Genomics Project of Drug Sensitivity in Cancer is a pioneering public-private partnership funded by Wellcome. The project combines samples of inpatient cancer cell lines with licensed and investigational anti-cancer drugs from pharmaceutical companies, and applies extensive observation and genetic badysis to determine how the underlying changes in DNA of a person affect his response to treatment.

The ultimate goal is to identify biomarkers that could be used clinically to determine the most effective drugs to treat the patient's cancer, based on the tumor's genetic profile.

Working together, the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the Center for Molecular Therapeutics studied samples of 30 different cancers in adults and children. The types of tumors include blood cancers and solid tumors, primitive and metastatic, common and rare.

New therapeutic

The new data is a valuable resource providing cancer scientists with opportunities to learn more about how cancer cells function, their response to treatment, and the creation of new treatments and drug combinations.

Now part of the Cancer Dependency Map project (Cancer DepMap Map), the dataset is available at www.cancerrxgene.org.

The team has other data releases planned in the near future.