The Pan-Cancer project is the most comprehensive study of entire genomes of cancers that has been made. The data and techniques of the project will enable scientists globally to gain further insights into cancer over the coming decades. One landmark achievement of the project has been the sequencing of the genome of tumour biopsies from individual patients and then mapping out the history of mutations occurring during tumour development. Some of these genetic errors occurred years or even decades before cancer diagnosis. Such roadmaps give a much better understanding of the specific hereditary, environmental, lifestyle and random factors leading to cancer.

The Pan-Cancer project equips scientists with the data and tools for further research on cancers at a genetic level. The project makes available the raw DNA sequencing data, software for cancer genome analysis, and multiple interactive websites exploring various aspects of the project data. The Pan-Cancer project extended and advanced methods for the international sharing and analysis of cancer DNA data which included cloud computing – computational algorithms that could run everywhere in the world, irrespective of where and how the data was stored. This means that scientists anywhere can perform their own analyses on the original data, contributing their expertise and ideas to generate new knowledge on the mechanisms that lead to specific cancers.

Evolution occurs when changes between generations improve the survival chances of some offspring. Over time, beneficial changes will become more common, and the population evolves. We usually think of this happening over many generations in a population of organisms, but we can also view the cells of the body as a population. Changes occur in the DNA of some cells when they divide and multiply. Some of these changes improve cells’ ability to survive and multiply, producing more cells which also carry the changes. More changes favouring more offspring can build up, leading to the uncontrolled proliferation of cells which is cancer. This is called somatic evolution (somatic cells being the cells of the body excluding sperm, egg and stem cells). The Pan-Cancer project aimed to study how the phenomena of somatic evolution leads to a range of cancers.

Around 40% of people will develop some form of cancer in their lifetimes. The Pan-Cancer project is a major step forward in addressing diseases which directly or indirectly touch everybody’s lives. Cancer happens when cell mechanisms go wrong, but cancers are incredibly varied, even when they affect the same part of the body. The Pan-Cancer project has provided amazing detail on the causes and events that lead to individual cancers. This knowledge is enabling scientists and doctors to identify at risk groups, make earlier and more precise diagnoses and devise both more specific treatments for individual patients and improve treatment of whole classes of cancers.