A Guide to Identifying Suitable Patient-derived Cancer Models in CancerModels.Org

About this Class

Patient-derived cancer models (PDCM) have become an essential tool in both cancer research and preclinical studies. Each model type offers unique advantages and is better suited for specific research areas: cell lines are low cost and allow high throughput assays, organoids model the impact of intratumor heterogeneity, tumor evolution, and drug response, and patient-derived xenografts (PDXs) retain the tumor architecture to better predict patient response to treatment. Seamless access to PDCMs is, however, hindered by the lack of shared data standards. As such, PDCM stakeholders - i.e., researchers, clinicians, bioinformaticians and analytical tool developers - are faced with the challenge to navigate a complex and siloed landscape across multiple commercial and academic resources.

CancerModels.Org is a new cancer research platform that aggregates clinical, genomic, and functional data from PDXs, organoids and cell lines. The platform addresses the needs of the stakeholders by standardizing, harmonizing and integrating the complex and diverse data associated with patient-derived cancer models. Its foundation is underpinned by our efforts to develop and promote the use of descriptive standards (e.g., PDX-MI, PMID: 29092942) to facilitate data interoperability and global sharing of models. Further value is provided by enriching the models and data with concepts from well-established terminologies (e.g, NCI Thesaurus) and links to external resources, such as, publication platforms, raw data archives and cancer specific annotation tools enabling exploration and prioritization of cancer model variation data. CancerModels.Org is freely available under an Apache 2.0 license.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the webinar you will be able to:

• Search for and access patient-derived cancer models based on specific criteria (e.g. gene variant)
• Explore molecular data for patient-derived models of specific cancer types
• Identify potential collaborators generating patient-derived cancer models
• Understand the quality representation for PDCMs within the platform

Target Audience

This webinar targets basic and translational scientists aiming to learn more about the utility or to make direct use of patient-derived cancer models and/or molecular data, associated with patient-derived cancer models.