In This Section

AACR Project GENIE: Frequently Asked Questions

If the answer to your question is not found here or in the data guide, contact us.  

Q. I registered, where is my confirmation?
A. Our automated responses periodically are caught in email filters. If you have registered to use the data and are experiencing difficulty logging in, please clear your browser cache/history, refresh, and try logging in again using the credentials used to register.

Q: What is the BioPharma Collaborative (BPC)?  
A: The BPC is a five-year precompetitive collaboration between AACR Project GENIE and 10 major biopharmaceutical companies to generate clinico-genomic data on 12 disease cohorts at scale. The intention is to use the project as the foundation to deeply clinically annotate all patients within the registry using programmatic methods. You can learn more here. 

Q. What percentage of the GENIE samples are also in the TCGA? 
A. It is possible that a very small percentage of the samples are also in TCGA (~0.1%). 

Q. Will there be therapeutic response data included? 
A. Yes; however, these data will only be included on specific subsets of patients and will not be available until the time of relevant study publication. 

Q. How do I get access to the data? 
A. Go to www.cbioportal.org/genie/ and request access. 

Q. Can I download the data directly? 
A. Yes, go to https://synapse.org/genie and request access. 

Q. How do I register to cbioportal?  
A. Visit www.cbioportal.org/login to sign up for an account. 

Q. Can I use a non-Gmail account to log in to the cbioportal? 
o A. Yes. We use Google Accounts to manage access to the data. All Gmail accounts are Google accounts but is possible to create a Google Account without Gmail, including using your institutional email address by following these instructions: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/176347. Sign up for an account. After you register for cBioPortal account, please refresh the page, and log-in again, in order to successfully enter the site. Should you have any issues after doing this, please contact us.  

Q. Can I learn more details about the data themselves?
A. Yes, download the data guide.

Q. Can I publish or present on AACR Project GENIE data or Project GENIE’s BPC public cohorts?  
A. When publishing or presenting work using or referencing any AACR Project GENIE datasets please include the following attributions: 

  • Please cite: The AACR Project GENIE Consortium. AACR Project GENIE: Powering Precision Medicine Through An International Consortium, Cancer Discov. 2017 Aug;7(8):818-831 and include the version of the dataset used. 
  • The authors would like to acknowledge the American Association for Cancer Research and its financial and material support in the development of the AACR Project GENIE registry, as well as members of the consortium for their commitment to data sharing. Interpretations are the responsibility of study authors. 

Posters and presentations should include the AACR Project GENIE logo. 

Q. Can I host the public AACR Project GENIE data in a different system to grant access to others? 
A. This depends on the system and use case, please contact us at [email protected] to discuss further. 

Q. Can my lab/institution/company sponsor a clinical study using the data? 
A. Yes, please email [email protected]

Q. Can my institution apply to become a participating center? 
A. Yes, please email [email protected]

Q. What is the distribution of cancer types in the dataset? 
A. The distribution is different for each release. To see the distribution for a given release, use the Oncotree codes in the clinical file. 

Q. What genomic regions are covered by a center’s gene panel? 
A. All panels are described in the combined BED file. 

Q. What annotation method was used for the variant data? 
A. The data was annotated with VEP, using vcf2maf as a wrapper for releases one through eight. Beginning with release nine, variants were annotated using genomenexus.org.

Q: I registered for cBioPortal, but can’t access the data.   
A: Clear your browser history/cache, refresh the page, and re-enter your credentials. Contact us if this does not resolve the issue.