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. 2024 Jan 5;52(D1):D1210-D1217.
doi: 10.1093/nar/gkad986.

COSMIC: a curated database of somatic variants and clinical data for cancer

Zbyslaw Sondka  1 , Nidhi Bindal Dhir  1 , Denise Carvalho-Silva  1 , Steven Jupe  1 , Madhumita  1 , Karen McLaren  1 , Mike Starkey  1 , Sari Ward  1 , Jennifer Wilding  1 , Madiha Ahmed  1 , Joanna Argasinska  1 , David Beare  1 , Manpreet Singh Chawla  1 , Stephen Duke  1 , Ilaria Fasanella  1 , Avirup Guha Neogi  1 , Susan Haller  1 , Balazs Hetenyi  1 , Leonie Hodges  1 , Alex Holmes  1 , Rachel Lyne  1 , Thomas Maurel  1 , Sumodh Nair  1 , Helder Pedro  1 , Amaia Sangrador-Vegas  1 , Helen Schuilenburg  1 , Zoe Sheard  1 , Siew Yit Yong  1 , Jon Teague  1
Affiliations

COSMIC: a curated database of somatic variants and clinical data for cancer

Zbyslaw Sondka et al. Nucleic Acids Res. .

Abstract

The Catalogue Of Somatic Mutations In Cancer (COSMIC), https://cancer.sanger.ac.uk/cosmic, is an expert-curated knowledgebase providing data on somatic variants in cancer, supported by a comprehensive suite of tools for interpreting genomic data, discerning the impact of somatic alterations on disease, and facilitating translational research. The catalogue is accessed and used by thousands of cancer researchers and clinicians daily, allowing them to quickly access information from an immense pool of data curated from over 29 thousand scientific publications and large studies. Within the last 4 years, COSMIC has substantially expanded its utility by adding new resources: the Mutational Signatures catalogue, the Cancer Mutation Census, and Actionability. To improve data accessibility and interoperability, somatic variants have received stable genomic identifiers that are associated with their genomic coordinates in GRCh37 and GRCh38, and new export files with reduced data redundancy have been made available for download.

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Figures

Graphical Abstract
Graphical Abstract
Figure 1.
Figure 1.
COSMIC’s 7 key resources for understanding cancer and improving cancer patient care. The main catalogue of somatic mutations is supported by further six resources that together lay additional layers of knowledge helping to interpret the impact of somatic mutations on cancer development and presenting available therapeutic options.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
COSMIC data curation flowchart. Depending on the data source and curation objectives, there are three main curation paths in COSMIC. Somatic variant and Actionability curation always require manual standardisation of metadata to COSMIC nomenclatures. Curation of variant data is performed either in a semi-automated way for the systematic screens or manually for targeted screens. Resources such as the Cancer Gene Census, Hallmarks of Cancer or Resistance Mutations require thorough validation and interpretation of experimental data from several sources. These interpretations form the evidence base for categorisation of biomarkers reported to the users e.g. classification of a gene as tumour suppressor.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Data and metadata included in COSMIC somatic variant curation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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