PDCM Finder is a new cancer research platform that aggregates clinical, genomic and functional data from patient-derived xenografts (PDXs), organoids and cell lines.
Patient-derived cancer models (PDCMs) 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 intratumour heterogeneity, tumour evolution, and drug response, and PDXs retain the tumour architecture to better predict patient response to treatment.
Researchers, clinicians, bioinformaticians and analytical tool developers face the challenge of navigating a complex landscape to find PDCMs and associated data across multiple commercial and academic resources without the benefit of shared data standards or interoperable data.
PDCM Finder addresses this problem by standardising, harmonising and integrating the complex and diverse data associated with PDCMs. The resource provides a unified entry point for research and clinical cancer communities to search and compare over 6,500 PDCMs and their associated data, including frequently mutated genes, diagnoses, drug treatments, and sequence data. It covers 13 cancer types, including rare paediatric models and models from minority ethnic backgrounds, making it the largest free to consumer and open access resource of its kind.
PDCM models hold tremendous promise for precision oncology, and PDCM Finder aids cancer community by ensuring finable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR) PDCM data for the generation and testing of new hypotheses in cancer mechanisms and personalised medicine development.
PDCM Finder is co-developed by the EMBL-EBI and The Jackson Laboratory and supported by the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute (U24 CA204781 01, U24 CA253539 01 and R01 CA089713). It serves as the successor of the now-retired PDX Finder portal, which was exclusively focused on patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models.
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