Harmonized nonhuman cancer database

Area of Science:

• Comparative oncology
• Bioinformatics
• Genetics

Background:

• Cancer affects all multicellular animals, with prevalence varying significantly across species and tissue types.
• Understanding species-specific cancer rates and contributing factors is crucial for developing novel therapies.
• Research is hindered by inconsistent and species-specific tumor data.

Purpose of the Study:

• To create a harmonized dataset of tumors across diverse species to facilitate comparative cancer research.
• To analyze cancer incidence across different tissue types in nonhuman species.
• To identify potential genetic mechanisms underlying cancer suppression and oncogenesis.

Main Methods:

• Compiled a harmonized dataset of tumors from 41,539 individuals across 825 species.
• Annotated each tumor with NCBI taxonomy ID, tissue-type ID, and cell type ID.
• Analyzed the relative incidence of specific cancer types (breast, colon, lung, soft tissue) across species.

Main Results:

• Breast, colon, and lung cancer incidence is generally low in nonhuman species.
• Soft tissue tumors exhibit a relatively high incidence across various species.
• Demonstrated significant variation in cancer rates dependent on tissue type.

Conclusions:

• The findings suggest the presence of uncharacterized genetic mechanisms involved in tumor suppression and oncogenesis.
• These mechanisms in nonhuman species may offer insights into human cancer progression and metastasis.
• A harmonized dataset is essential for advancing comparative oncology research.