Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 4, 2026

Isolation of Cancer Stem Cells From Human Prostate Cancer Samples
Published on: March 14, 2014
The COSMIC Cancer Gene Census: describing genetic dysfunction across all human cancers
Zbyslaw Sondka1,2, Sally Bamford3, Charlotte G Cole3
1Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, UK. zbyslaw.sondka@sanger.ac.uk.
Abstract:
The Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer (COSMIC) Cancer Gene Census (CGC) is an expert-curated description of the genes driving human cancer that is used as a standard in cancer genetics across basic research, medical reporting and pharmaceutical development. After a major expansion and complete re-evaluation, the 2018 CGC describes in detail the effect of 719 cancer-driving genes. The recent expansion includes functional and mechanistic descriptions of how each gene contributes to disease generation in terms of the key cancer hallmarks and the impact of mutations on gene and protein function. These functional characteristics depict the extraordinary complexity of cancer biology and suggest multiple cancer-related functions for many genes, which are often highly tissue-dependent or tumour stage-dependent. The 2018 CGC encompasses a second tier, describing an expanding list of genes (currently 145) from more recent cancer studies that show supportive but less detailed indications of a role in cancer.
Related Concept Videos
Cancer-Critical Genes II: Tumor Suppressor Genes
When the function of certain critical genes, especially those involved in cell cycle regulation and cell growth signaling cascades, gets disrupted, it upsets the cell cycle progression. Such cells with unchecked cell cycles start proliferating uncontrollably and eventually develop into tumors.
Such genes that act...
Cancer-Critical Genes I: Proto-oncogenes
When the function of certain critical genes, especially those involved in cell cycle regulation and cell growth signaling cascades, gets disrupted, it upsets the cell cycle progression. Such cells with unchecked cell cycles start proliferating uncontrollably and eventually develop into tumors.
Such genes that act...
Mutation, Gene Flow, and Genetic Drift
Cancer
What is Cancer?
Although people have known about cancer for centuries, it was only in 1761 that Giovanni Morgagni of Padua performed a detailed autopsy of...
Human Genetics
The complex relationship between genetics and psychology is observable through common biological components such...

