This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
AACR Project GENIE shows ‘power of data sharing’ with release of first set of genomic data
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
The American Association for Cancer Research released the first set of cancer genomic data from Project GENIE, a multiphase, international data-sharing effort.
The release included 19,000 de-identified genomic and limited clinical records from patients treated for one of 59 major cancer types. All patients were treated at one of the eight founding participating institutions in Project GENIE, the acronym for which stands for Genomics, Evidence, Neoplasia, Information and Exchange.
“I am incredibly proud because it was no small feat to get eight cancer centers, who are competitive, to share all of this data,” Charles L. Sawyers, MD, FAACR, chairman of the AACR Project GENIE steering committee, as well as chairman of the human oncology and pathogenesis program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, told HemOnc Today. “Everyone has now learned a lot from each other, and we feel that best practices developed at different institutions have now been adopted across the consortium and there is a real ‘feel good’ aspect.”
The AACR Project GENIE steering committee conceptualized the project to catalyze precision oncology through a regulatory-grade registry of clinical-grade cancer genomic data and outcomes of patients. The data will be updated on a quarterly basis.
The evidence from Project GENIE may influence guidelines issued by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and provide registry data for FDA approvals, Sawyers said.
“Next is to execute two projects that are already underway in which the question is: For patients with a rare mutation in which there is an investigational drug that is in clinical development that we already know is active, can we accelerate the approval of such a drug?” Sawyers said. “These [data sets] will show the power of data sharing at accelerating patients getting access to active medications.”
The steering committee plans to publish an overview of preliminary findings, and also is working to expand the consortium in the next 4 to 6 months, Sawyers said.
The eight institutions that participated in the first phase of the consortium are:
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute;
- Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus in France;
- The Netherlands Cancer Institute, on behalf of the Center for Personalized Cancer Treatment;
- Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins;
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center;
- Princess Margaret Cancer Centre;
- The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; and
- Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.
The data set can be accessed via the AACR Project GENIE cBioPortal or downloaded from Sage Bionetworks. – by Kristie L. Kahl