Scientists Build Public, Searchable Database for Cancer Data

Last month, Vice President Joe Biden begged research scientists to collaborate on discovering a cure by sharing their research data.

Earlier this week, the Biden-led “Cancer Moonshot,” which aims to double the pace of research and development with a $1 billion federal investment, made progress on that request.

The National Cancer Institute is unveiling a data repository, hosting clinical cancer data from at least 12,000 patients. The platform, called the Genomic Data Commons, would let researchers share and analyze tumor genome sequences, while equipped with the “appropriate privacy and security protections,” according to a White House blog post.

The system will soon let researchers share information about patients’ response to specific treatments, allowing them to analyze the way subtypes of cancer react to current treatments, the post said.

Researchers can process the data using their own computational tools, though GDC will also include its own search, visualization and analysis capabilities.

This massive database could also help researchers explore treatment individualized for a patient’s unique genetic makeup and lifestyle -- the goal of the Obama administration’s Precision Medicine Initiative.

While cancer researchers generate large volumes of genetic data, it’s not readily available, Biden said at a Health and Human Services Department-sponsored event last month.

“Imagine what we could do -- you could do, to help in the fight against cancer if you had access to the millions of cancer pathologies, genomic sequences, family histories and treatment outcomes," he said. "Imagine if you had the complete health information in a privacy protected way."

Today, he added, “most major cancer centers don’t have an easy way and, in many cases, the motivation to share data including patient records, test results, family histories and treatment responses. We’ve got to change this.”