COSMIC, the Catalogue Of Somatic Mutations In Cancer, is the world's largest and most comprehensive resource for exploring the impact of somatic mutations in human cancer. When it was created in 2004 by researchers with the Cancer Genome Project in conjunction with the Sanger Institute, COSMIC was set up with a big ambition–to be the source of all cancer genomic knowledge.
Today, COSMIC contains nearly 24 million genomic variants across 6,800 precise forms of human cancer. It is the most expansive, expert-curated knowledge hub available for somatic NGS data analysis and interpretation. From molecular pathologists matching mutations to targeted therapies to bioinformaticians looking for patterns of DNA mutations in cancer cells, COSMIC is an excellent resource for identifying and understanding cancer mutations.
Now, as the demand for precision oncology increases, so does the need for a comprehensive cancer genomic knowledge base. Here are 5 reasons why you should be using COSMIC for biopharmaceutical research.
Precision is crucial in developing biopharmaceuticals. Unlike other somatic databases, COSMIC is meticulously and rigorously curated by a team of highly trained, PhD-level experts. This manual curation—the gold standard in genomic curation—ensures that every data point undergoes human scrutiny, giving scientists unparalleled confidence in the accuracy and consistency of the data they rely on. Through comprehensive literature searches, COSMIC’s experts have curated, standardized, and cataloged mutation data, phenotype information, and clinical details from over 1.5 million cancer samples and 29,000 peer-reviewed papers to date.
COSMIC provides an unmatched level of traceability for every data point, empowering scientists with transparency and fostering confidence in the presented evidence. With COSMIC, there is no 'black box'; each piece of information can be traced back to its source, providing users with complete visibility into its origins. This complete transparency is invaluable for biopharmaceutical scientists, especially when dealing with rare variants or variants of unknown significance. In these cases, users can independently assess each piece of data, exercising their judgment on whether to agree or disagree with COSMIC’s data for a particular variant.
In the pursuit of precision oncology, biopharmaceutical scientists must address a wide range of questions about somatic alterations as druggable targets. COSMIC stands as the largest repository of comprehensive genomic, phenotypic, and mutational characteristics of cancers. With COSMIC, you can obtain the most exhaustive information available on mutations associated with a specific cancer type, the frequency and tumor distribution of a specific alteration, driver oncogenic events, candidate therapeutic targets, and much more.
Furthermore, COSMIC’s Actionability functionality assists scientists in tracking and exploring drugs in various stages of development, monitoring the progress of clinical trials, and investigating drugs repurposed to target specific mutations.
And unlike other databases relying on volunteers, COSMIC is continually updated by its team of dedicated expert scientists, ensuring you have access to the accurate and up-to-date insights necessary to advance your translational research efforts.
In the dynamic field of biopharmaceuticals, adaptability is essential. COSMIC offers exceptional flexibility, enabling users to customize their data mining, visualization, and manipulation processes. COSMIC can be seamlessly integrated into your IT systems, allowing automatic updates or scheduled integration of newly released datasets to align with your individual workflow. COSMIC also allows you to customize filters according to your pipeline and fully integrate its data with proprietary databases to obtain a single comprehensive view. With COSMIC, you can easily align the data precisely with your unique research processes, enhancing your ability to extract actionable insights.
In biopharmaceutical research, credibility is earned through adoption. Over 50,000 molecular pathology labs, clinicians, bioinformaticians, and researchers worldwide trust and use COSMIC. It has also been cited in over 10,000 publications. Its extensive usage attests to its accuracy, consistency, and reliability. Recognized in the AMP/ASCO/CAP guidelines as a foundational evidence source for somatic variant assessments, COSMIC allows biopharmaceutical scientists to align their work with the highest standards in the field.
Trying COSMIC in your lab is easy. Simply visit the official COSMIC website, scroll to the bottom of the page, and "Request A Demo". One of our experts will contact you immediately about scheduling a free demo of COSMIC using your lab's data.
We are pleased to announce the availability of a new release for COSMIC, the Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer. COSMIC Actionability v9 adds new actionability data to the world’s largest, expert-curated somatic mutation database. The release includes 5 new fully curated somatic genes, 948 new clinical trials, and 100 new oncology drugs.
In this article, we provide a summary of the COSMIC Actionability v9 release highlights.
COSMIC, the Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer, is an expert-curated database encompassing the wide variety of somatic mutation mechanisms causing human cancer. Owned and maintained by the Wellcome Sanger Institute, COSMIC is exclusively licensed through QIAGEN.
COSMIC’s team of variant scientists manually curates key cancer genes to provide in-depth information on mutation distributions and effects. The team relies on a semi-automated curation process of cancer genomes to provide broad somatic annotations toward target discovery and identification of patterns and signatures. To date, COSMIC contains nearly 24 million somatic mutations associated with human cancers.
COSMIC Actionability is a standalone product within the COSMIC database that focuses on providing information on the availability and development of drugs targeting somatic mutations in cancer. COSMIC’s certified curation team integrates data from case studies, clinical trials, and regulatory bodies to represent a full picture of the current precision oncology pipeline (from drug development, through safety and clinical phases, to market and repurposing).
Actionability contains information on three core units: mutations, diseases and drugs. By capturing relations between these units, COSMIC’s team identifies existing and upcoming drugs that target specific genetic variants in different cancer types. COSMIC Actionability is a cutting-edge, ‘living-tool’ that provides the most up-to-date data for precision oncology applications.
→ View the full Actionability v9 release notes here.
Learn more about COSMIC and how the industry-leading database can help you identify biomarkers, annotate variants, and explore the etiology of human cancers here.
See first-hand how COSMIC can be used in your lab by downloading sample data here.
Automating and scaling a comprehensive genomic profiling workflow can be a tedious and challenging process that requires lots of time and resources. However, an intelligent clinical decision support platform and on-demand expert support services can make all the difference.
In this webinar, learn about QIAGEN Clinical Insight (QCI) Interpret for Oncology, a clinical decision support platform that has been trusted to analyze and interpret more than 3 million patient molecular profiles worldwide. Unlike other commercial solutions, QCI Interpret for Oncology is powered by augmented molecular intelligence and offers in-software access to a team of variant scientists to assist you with rare or novel variant research, curation, and interpretation. The platform connects to the QIAGEN Knowledge Base—the highest quality genomic knowledge base in the industry—and dynamically computes variant classifications according to AMP/ASCO/CAP and ACMG/AMP guidelines. To help you further scale and reduce hands-on time, QCI Interpret for Oncology provides over 410,000 variant interpretation summaries that have all been reviewed by oncologists. This enables you to quickly build custom reports for your oncologists and their patients with the latest diagnostic and prognostic information, as well as biomarker-directed therapy and clinical trial recommendations.
By attending this webinar, you will:
Receive a step-by-step guide of how to go from VCF to final report using QCI Interpret for Oncology
Learn about the platform’s automated variant classification process
Learn how QIAGEN uses augmented molecular intelligence to enhance our expert curation process
See first-hand how to build a custom report with an opportunity to submit your own VCF file for a sample report
We are pleased to announce the release of the latest version of the Human Somatic Mutation Database, a new somatic database developed by QIAGEN that contains extensive genomic content relevant to solid tumors and hematological malignancies. HSMD 2.1.1 enhances the database with the latest cutting-edge cancer content, including new clinical trials, new drugs, and new variants that have been clinically observed or curated from scientific literature to help users better understand and define precise function and actionability.
HSMD 2.1.1 release highlights
View the full list of new content updates here.
About HSMD
Combining over 2 decades of expert curation and data from real-world clinical oncology cases, HSMD is a new somatic database from QIAGEN that serves as a single, trusted data source for clinical labs to validate, assess, and better understand the clinical significance of detected variants.
HSMD aggregates manually curated content from the QIAGEN Knowledge Base, the industry’s largest collection of biological and clinical findings, with data from over 500,000 real-world clinical oncology cases that have been analyzed and interpreted by QIAGEN’s professional clinical interpretation service, to eliminate the need to manually collect information across knowledge bases and provide deep genomic insight into the molecular characterizations of your patient’s tumor.
Easy to search with new content added weekly, HSMD enables users to explore key genes or mutations with driving properties or clinical relevance, and lets users search for associated treatment options, off-label therapies, resistance markers, and regional and/or disease-specific clinical trials.
Learn more about HSMD here.
[NEW!] HSMD Software Developer Now Available: Integrate HSMD into your in-house analytical tool for increased efficiency. You’ll be able to link out to the full HSMD online content via endpoints (API keys). HSMD Software Developer access provides integration keys for +1.5 million cancer-associated variants.
Join Dr. Marie-Laure Yaspo, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Alacris Theranostics, as she discusses the development, application, and analysis of the Comprehensive Molecular Tumor Analysis (CMTA) test for cancer patients.
Precision oncology approaches have made great strides harnessing individual tumor mutation profiles to guide targeted therapy choices. However, deeper molecular insights are needed to improve personalized treatment decisions. Integrating gene expression analysis in personalized oncology provides an additional level of insight. These analyses include evaluating expressed mutations and drug targets, novel gene fusions, clinically relevant signatures, and the tumor immune microenvironment (TME).
Alacris Theranostics developed the Comprehensive Molecular Tumor Analysis (CMTA), a NGS-based tumor diagnostic test. The test integrates whole exome and transcriptomic sequencing (WES and RNAseq). The test deploys as an end-to-end accredited diagnostic platform from tumor sample uptake (FFPE or frozen) to personalized clinical interpretation reports. CMTA is a tumor-agnostic test that displays a unique molecular view of each sample. CMTA is a useful approach for refractory cancers with complex patterns or tumors of unknown origin.
In this webinar, attendees will:
You’re invited to QIAGEN Digital Insights’ first annual Every Lab Summit, a free-to-attend virtual event exploring how any lab, anywhere, of any size can offer precision oncology NGS testing to advance community cancer care.
It’s a new world of NGS. The challenge is no longer how to rapidly sequence DNA, but how to understand and use this genomic data at an equally accelerated pace to improve patient outcomes.
At the Every Lab Summit, our experts will demonstrate how small to mid-sized clinical diagnostic labs can compete to offer comprehensive genomic profiling services for precision oncology with the same speed, expertise, and confidence of large hospital networks and university centers.
Attendees will receive virtual demonstrations of QIAGEN Clinical Insights software, as well as qualify for free trials and/or complimentary consultations of QIAGEN's clinical decision support software and solutions.
View event agenda here.
Read the full article here!
OncoLand is a sophisticated oncology-focused database designed to accelerate cancer research. Integrating published research and large consortium cancer datasets, robust data visualization and discovery tools, OncoLand saves you valuable time and resources in your pursuit for actionable discoveries.
Start your free trial of OncoLand today!
Today, at the 60th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) in San Diego, California, QIAGEN announced the launch of two novel products to deliver actionable insights on a wide range of blood cancers: a new workflow for the QCI Interpret bioinformatics solution for hematological malignancies, and the new QIAact Myeloid DNA UMI Panel for use in myeloid neoplasm research as a Sample to Insight workflow on QIAGEN's GeneReader NGS System.
Meet and talk with our experts at ASH 18, booth #1557!
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