The cancer precision medicine knowledge base for structured clinical-grade mutations and interpretations.

Huang, Linda; Fernandes, Helen; Zia, Hamid; Tavassoli, Peyman; Rennert, Hanna; Pisapia, David; Imielinski, Marcin; Sboner, Andrea; Rubin, Mark Andrew; Kluk, Michael; Elemento, Olivier (2017). The cancer precision medicine knowledge base for structured clinical-grade mutations and interpretations. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 24(3), pp. 513-519. Oxford University Press 10.1093/jamia/ocw148

[img]
Preview
Text
ocw148.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial (CC-BY-NC).

Download (623kB) | Preview

Objective

This paper describes the Precision Medicine Knowledge Base (PMKB; https://pmkb.weill.cornell.edu ), an interactive online application for collaborative editing, maintenance, and sharing of structured clinical-grade cancer mutation interpretations.

Materials and Methods

PMKB was built using the Ruby on Rails Web application framework. Leveraging existing standards such as the Human Genome Variation Society variant description format, we implemented a data model that links variants to tumor-specific and tissue-specific interpretations. Key features of PMKB include support for all major variant types, standardized authentication, distinct user roles including high-level approvers, and detailed activity history. A REpresentational State Transfer (REST) application-programming interface (API) was implemented to query the PMKB programmatically.

Results

At the time of writing, PMKB contains 457 variant descriptions with 281 clinical-grade interpretations. The EGFR, BRAF, KRAS, and KIT genes are associated with the largest numbers of interpretable variants. PMKB's interpretations have been used in over 1500 AmpliSeq tests and 750 whole-exome sequencing tests. The interpretations are accessed either directly via the Web interface or programmatically via the existing API.

Discussion

An accurate and up-to-date knowledge base of genomic alterations of clinical significance is critical to the success of precision medicine programs. The open-access, programmatically accessible PMKB represents an important attempt at creating such a resource in the field of oncology.

Conclusion

The PMKB was designed to help collect and maintain clinical-grade mutation interpretations and facilitate reporting for clinical cancer genomic testing. The PMKB was also designed to enable the creation of clinical cancer genomics automated reporting pipelines via an API.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > Pre-clinic Human Medicine > BioMedical Research (DBMR) > DBMR Forschung Mu35 > Forschungsgruppe Präzisionsonkologie
04 Faculty of Medicine > Pre-clinic Human Medicine > BioMedical Research (DBMR) > DBMR Forschung Mu35 > Forschungsgruppe Präzisionsonkologie

UniBE Contributor:

Rubin, Mark Andrew

Subjects:

500 Science
500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology

ISSN:

1067-5027

Publisher:

Oxford University Press

Language:

English

Submitter:

Marla Rittiner

Date Deposited:

08 Mar 2018 14:00

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:10

Publisher DOI:

10.1093/jamia/ocw148

PubMed ID:

27789569

Uncontrolled Keywords:

application-programming interface cancer genomics clinical reporting database pathology precision medicine

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.110864

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/110864

Actions (login required)

Edit item Edit item
Provide Feedback