GDC Overview

The mission of the GDC is to provide the cancer research community with a unified repository and cancer knowledge base that enables data sharing across cancer genomic studies in support of precision medicine.

The NCI Center for Cancer Genomics (CCG) was established to lead the NCI effort in generating critical datasets for cataloging the alteration seen in human tumors, coordinating data unification and sharing efforts, and supporting the development of analytical tools and computation approaches aimed at improving the understanding of large-scale, multidimensional data.  The CCG supports several large-scale cancer genome research programs including The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the Office of Cancer Genomics (OCG). OCG includes two initiatives supporting the molecular characterization of cancer including the Therapeutically Applicable Research to Generate Effective Treatments (TARGET) initiative and the Cancer Genome Characterization Initiative (CGCI).

TCGA, TARGET, CGCI, and other CCG programs have provided a comprehensive characterization of genomic changes in several human cancers; however, these characterizations are maintained in separate repositories, in diverse formats, and with different data management infrastructures. To unify these efforts, NCI established the GDC to provide the cancer research community with a data service supporting the receipt, quality control, integration, storage, and redistribution of standardized cancer genomic data sets derived from various legacy and active NCI programs.

The GDC was developed by several organizations with valuable contributions from community bioinformatics leaders identified as the "GDC Team". For additional information on the GDC and other CCG-supported programs, visit the CCG Programs Site.