International Cancer Genome Consortium

The ICGC is one of the most ambitious biomedical research efforts since the Human Genome Project. The consortium will help to coordinate current and future large-scale projects to understand the genomic changes involved in cancers of global concern. The catalogues produced by ICGC members will be made rapidly and freely available to qualified researchers, which will enable scientists around the globe to use the new information to develop better ways of diagnosing, treating and preventing many types of cancer.

The aim of the ICGC is to provide a comprehensive description of the somatic (non-inherited) genomic abnormalities present in the broad range of human tumors. Given our current knowledge of the heterogeneity of tumor types and subtypes, the ICGC set a goal of coordinating approximately 50 projects, each of which will generate the genomic analyses on approximately 500 cancer samples of each class. It is well recognized, however, that cancer is highly heterogeneous and hundreds of types/subtypes can be defined. Therefore, the stated goal of 50 ICGC projects is not intended to, and cannot, exhaustively cover the full spectrum of cancer types.

ICGC Funding and Research members proposing a project must agree to the ICGC’s policies, which include requirements for rapid data release, for rigorous quality standards and for protection of study participants.

The complete list of the ICGC Goals, Structure, Policies and Guidelines is available at http://icgc.org/

ICGC is funded by participating nations, each of which focuses on one or more forms of cancer, with the goal of mapping the genomes of at least 50 types of cancer.[3] The consortium's secretariat is at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research in Toronto, Canada,[4] which will also operate the data coordination center. The provincial Government of Ontario provided funding of $40 million, and each participating funding member is expected to contribute $20 million toward each project. In 2009 the German Cancer Aid supported one ICGC-project with 7.9 million Euro. This was the highest amount a private organization gave. The money is donated by German people.

ICGC membership is open to all entities that agree to follow its principles and guidelines. The ICGC has received commitments from funding organizations in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America for 47 project teams in 15 jurisdictions to study over 21,000 tumor genomes. Projects that are currently funded are examining tumors affecting the bladder, blood, bone, brain, breast, cervix, colon, head and neck, kidney, liver, lung, oral cavity, ovary, pancreas, prostate, rectum, skin, soft tissues, stomach, thyroid and uterus. Over time, additional nations and organizations are anticipated to join the ICGC. The genomic analyses of tumors conducted by ICGC members in Australia and Canada (pancreatic cancer), China (gastric cancer), France (liver cancer), Germany (brain cancer), Japan (liver cancer), Spain (blood cancer), the UK (blood, breast, lung and skin cancer) and the USA (blood, brain, breast, colon, kidney, lung, ovarian, rectal, stomach and uterine cancer) are now available through the Data Coordination Center housed on the ICGC website at http://www.icgc.org. Data sets are browseable and may be downloaded at https://dcc.icgc.org/.

Each participating country has a particular tumor type as its primary research target:[5]

• Australia: Pancreatic cancer – Ductal adenocarcinoma and ovarian cancer – Serous cystadenocarcinoma[6]
• Canada: Pancreatic cancer – Ductal adenocarcinoma and prostate cancer – adenocarcinoma
• China: Gastric cancer – Intestinal- and diffuse-type
• European Union/France: Renal cancer – Renal cell carcinoma (Focus on but not limited to clear cell subtype)
• European Union/United Kingdom: Breast cancer – ER+ve, HER2-ve
• France: Breast cancer – Subtype defined by an amplification of the HER2 gene
• France: Liver cancer – Hepatocellular carcinoma (Secondary to alcohol and adiposity)
• Germany: Pediatric brain tumors – Medulloblastoma and pediatric pilocytic astrocytoma and malignant lymphoma and prostate cancer[7]
• India: Oral cancer – Gingivobuccal
• Italy: Rare pancreatic tumors – Enteropancreatic endocrine tumors and rare pancreatic exocrine tumors
• Japan: Liver cancer – Hepatocellular carcinoma (Virus associated)
• Spain: Chronic lymphocytic leukemia – CLL with mutated and unmutated IgVH
• United Kingdom: Breast cancer – Triple Negative/lobular/other
• United States: lung squamous cell carcinoma, kidney papillary carcinoma, clear cell kidney carcinoma, breast ductal carcinoma, renal cell carcinoma, cervical cancer (squamous), colon adenocarcinoma, stomach adenocarcinoma, rectal carcinoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, Head and neck (oral) squamous cell carcinoma, thyroid carcinoma, bladder urothelial carcinoma – nonpapillary, uterine corpus (endometrial carcinoma), pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, acute myeloid leukemia, prostate adenocarcinoma, lung adenocarcinoma, cutaneous melanoma, breast lobular carcinoma and lower grade glioma, esophageal carcinoma, ovarian serous cystadenocarcinoma, lung squamous cell carcinoma, adrenocortical carcinoma, Diffuse Large B-cell lymphoma, paraganglioma & pheochromocytoma, cholangiocarcinoma, uterine carcinosarcoma, uveal melanoma, thymoma, sarcoma, mesothelioma, and testicular germ cell cancer.

• The Cancer Genome Atlas - National Cancer Institute
• Cancer Genome Project - Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute