Hyderabad Researchers part of landmark initiative to create India’s first Breast Cancer Genomic Atlas

The overall breast cancer genomic atlas is seeking to create India-specific cancer genomic resources and in the process find actionable molecular features of clinical significance, senior scientists from CCMB said.

Hyderabad: Genetic researchers from Hyderabad are part of a major country-wide initiative of completing the genomic mapping of nearly 1,000 breast cancer tumours of patients drawn from the city and elsewhere and come up with a unique Indian Breast Cancer Genomic Atlas (IBCGA).

The program of genomic profiling of Indian breast cancer cases, which is already underway, is first of its kind and being taken up by multiple genetic laboratories in India under Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), which also involves researchers from Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB).

The overall breast cancer genomic atlas is seeking to create India-specific cancer genomic resources and in the process find actionable molecular features of clinical significance, senior scientists from CCMB said.

The reason for focus on breast cancer is due to the fact that the disease has quickly become the number one cancer among Indian women. “A significant rise in the incidence of breast cancer-associated mortality in the Indian population has been noted. Genomic characterization of tumours will help doctors/scientists improve clinical management of cancer patients,” CSIR in a note on Breast Cancer Genomic Atlas said.

As a part of the genomic cancer atlas, more than 50 physicians, 35 scientists and 12 hospitals from Hyderabad and across India are in the process of generating over 400 terrabytes of cancer data of Indian patients.

Researchers in the well-known science journal Nature (February, 2024) said that the success of the atlas will impact 20 per cent of the humanity. “The first cohort of 1,000 breast cancer patients is expected to generate a lot of data, underscoring the importance of creating high-quality data to enable impactful research,” they said.

The genomic atlas uses standard data models for clinical data harmonization and bioinformatics analyses. As it expands to other cancers, the atlas will have to handle increasing volumes of complex data. Efforts are underway to construct a robust, scalable data and compute infrastructure to support this growth, the Nature article said.