NCI The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Tissue Acquisition

The NCI is expanding its basic and translational research programs that rely heavily on sufficient availability of high quality well annotated biospecimens suitable for use in genomic studies. The NCI's overarching goal with such programs is to improve the ability to diagnose, treat, and prevent cancer. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), one such program, is a comprehensive and coordinated effort to accelerate our understanding of the molecular basis of cancer through the application of genome analysis technologies. The NCI and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) launched TCGA as a 3-year pilot project in 2006, and have since (August 2009) initiated the second phase of the project to study at least 20 additional cancers over 5 years.

This project aims to systematically explore the entire spectrum of genomic changes involved in human cancer. Specifically, the project is designed to comprehensively analyze DNA copy number changes, including large (on the order of chromosome segments) and small (1,000-100,000 kb) scale rearrangements, transcription profiles, epigenetic modifications, sequence variation, and sequence in both tumor tissue and case-matched germline DNA. The suite of analysis platforms will be applied to a common set of molecular analytes obtained from clinically annotated high-quality tumor biospecimens and case-matched normal tissue (control).