The entire cancer research community has a strong stake in helping The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) reach its goal of completely characterizing 10,000 cancer samples by 2014. TCGA has already discovered four new subtypes of glioblastoma in 2011. This discovery is paving the way for informed selection of therapies for patients. Since then, TCGA has started collecting low-grade gliomas for genomic analysis and is close to completing an analysis of 500 glioblastoma tumors.
Today TCGA has announced that it is ready to accept malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNST) for comprehensive genomic characterization. If TCGA can collect a sufficient number of samples, the important knowledge generated will be added to the TCGA Data Portal and Cancer Genomics Hub (CGHub), both freely available resources to the cancer research community.
This is where you come in. We’re asking you to help TCGA get the samples they need for their research. Patients and families, talk to your doctors. Doctors, talk to your clinical research staff.
For the project to move forward, TCGA will need to collect 100 samples. Just imagine if in the next six months, we can say that we assisted TCGA in fully researching MPNSTs and advancing efforts toward effective treatments. Let’s help them reach their goal so that they can produce the research that will eventually benefit our community!
If you have access to samples and want to help TCGA, please contact tcga@mail.nih.gov as soon as possible to discuss the specifications and the tissue submission procedures.
Thank you in advance for doing as much as you can, right away, to help TCGA.
