Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
In this issue, the Focus on Pan-Cancer Analysis examines the similarities and differences among the genomic and cellular alterations found in the first dozen tumor types to be profiled by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Network. This first look across cancers offers new tools in genomics and bioinformatics and the prospect of repurposing targeted therapies to be directed by the molecular pathology of tumors in addition to their clinical classification.
Larsson Omberg and colleagues write a Commentary describing the collaborative model used by the Pan-Cancer Working Group of The Cancer Genome Atlas. Pan-Cancer members used the Synapse software platform to share and evolve data, results and methods to perform integrative analyses of genome-wide molecular data for 12 cancer types.
Current clinical practice is organized according to tissue or organ of origin of tumors. Now, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Network has started to identify genomic and other molecular commonalities among a dozen different types of cancer. Emerging similarities and contrasts will form the basis for targeted therapies of the future and for repurposing existing therapies by molecular rather than histological similarities of the diseases.
Three disciplines—cancer genomics, functional analysis of cancer cells and nuclear reprogramming—have come together to focus on the basic biology of cell commitment in our Nature Conference with the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research held 25–27 September in Oxford, UK.
The standards set by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the description, registration and stewardship of large biomedical data sets will be an effective lever, if presented in the form of rules, to guide community and commercial solutions for data analysis and reuse.