NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) — The National Cancer Institute (NCI) announced yesterday that the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) will begin contributing its genomic and clinical data to the NCI Genomic Data Commons (GDC), a publicly available database designed to enable precision medicine in oncology.
The GDC, which was launched this summer, is a cloud-based platform housed at the University of Chicago Center for Data Intensive Science in collaboration with the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, all under an NCI contract with Leidos Biomedical Research. A core component of the Cancer Moonshot and Precision Medicine Initiative, its goal is to centralize, standardize, and make available data from large-scale NCI programs, and to collect genomic and molecular cancer data from researchers elsewhere.
According to the NCI, the MMRF is the first non-profit organization to upload information to the GDC. Among its contributions will be data from Relating Clinical Outcomes in MM to Personal Assessment of Genetic Profile, or CoMMpass, an ongoing study looking at the molecular drivers of multiple myeloma. The trial, which began in 2011, has thus far enrolled over 1,150 patients, the NCI noted.
"Data sharing is essential to advancing cancer research, and I cannot overstate the value of the data that MMRF is providing — not only genomic data but also full clinical data, as well," NCI Acting Director Doug Lowy said in a statement. "Combining genomic and clinical information will create an invaluable resource for all researchers worldwide studying this disease who are working toward new, more effective treatments."