Cancer Genomics

This short post introducds the gdc_clinical() function recently added to the GenomicDataCommons package. The rich data model at the NCI Genomic Data Commons (GDC) includes clinical and biospecimen details. A recently added feature to the NCI GDC Data Portal is the ability to download tab-delimited files or JSON files for clinical and biospecimen details of samples. The details available in these simplified formats are also available via the GDC API.

The NCI Genomic Data Commons (GDC) now contains the authoritative source of data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) as well as several other projects of import to the cancer research community. One of the available assays produces somatic variant calls, formally identified by comparing tumor reads and normal reads to identify variants relative to the human reference genome that are not present in the normal genome of the patient.