AACR releases large cancer genomic data set from project GENIE

Abstract

The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in January released the first cancer genomic data from its Genomics Evidence Neoplasia Information Exchange (GENIE) initiative in the largest fully public genomic data set released to date. The data set includes nearly 19,000 de-identified genomic records from patients treated at 8 international institutions. It includes details on 59 major cancer types, including data from nearly 3000 patients with lung cancer, more than 2000 patients with breast cancer, and more than 2000 patients with colorectal cancer. The genomic data include a limited amount of linked clinical data for each patient, and both types of data can be accessed via the AACR Web site (www.aacr.org) or downloaded directly from Sage Bionetworks (www.sagebase.org). According to the AACR, the clinical-grade data are fully deidentified in compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. They are from patients whose tumors were genetically sequenced as part of their care at 1 of the 8 institutions participating in the first phase of the initiative (see the sidebar to the left).