Posted: August 8, 2011
TCGA: Milestones Achieved
Kenna Shaw, Ph.D.
Director of The Cancer Genome Atlas Program Office
By September 30, 2011 the TCGA program plans to achieve the milestones established in 2009- when TCGA was named a Signature Program and a major recipient of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding. An ambitious goal - to provide comprehensive genomic characterization and sequencing data to the research community on at least 3,000 new cancer cases by the end of September 2011- will be achieved.
It has been a period of exponential growth. Over this short time we have shifted from studying two tumor types (GBM and Ovarian) to investigating more than 20 additional types of human cancer.
We recently closed accrual on ovarian serous cystadenocarcinoma and glioblastoma multiforme, both tumors started the TCGA Pilot Project. But we have now also closed accrual on breast ductal, clear cell kidney and colorectal adenocarcinoma. The pace is picking up- largely because of an engaged research community- a community that wants to share previous resources, including samples, and a community that wants to leverage TCGA datasets in cancer research.
To celebrate these accomplishments and recognize that this data exists for the community of researchers dedicated to fighting, and winning, the War on Cancer, TCGA is supporting the First Annual Scientific Symposium on TCGA-related research. We welcome all investigators to attend the meeting and share how you are using TCGA data in your work.
We welcome registration at the TCGA Scientific Symposium website.
