Worldwide Innovative Network Consortium: Building a Common Global Cancer Database.
Farhood Farahnak, Wafik S El-Deiry, Yves A Lussier, Razelle Kurzrock, Shai Magidi, Catherine Bresson, Shirin A Enger, Jia Liu, Jair Bar, Jeremy L Warner, Tobias Meissner, Eitan Rubin, Jens Rueter, Himabindu Gaddipati, Mandar Kulkarni, Zhen Chen, Sewanti Limaye, Rachel Elsey, Brenda M Rubenstein, Anthony M Joshua, Humaid O Al-Shamsi, Khaled M Musallam, Fanny Wunder, Jacques Raynaud, Guy Berchem, Manon Gantenbein, Amal Al Omari, Said Dermime, Hikmat Abdel-Razeq, Pierre Saintigny, Andrés Cervantes, Roger R Reddel, Adel T Aref, Juan Martin-Liberal, Conxi Lázaro, David Cordero Romera, Marina Sekacheva, Raanan Berger, C S Pramesh, Ioana Berindan-Neagoe, Eugenia Girda, Alejandro Piris-Gimenez, Carol J Farhangfar, Mohammed E Salem, Rodrigo Dienstmann, Ramon Salazar, Naftali Z Frankel, Zachary Batist, Yuri Quintana, Gerald Batist
Journal: JCO global oncology
2026;12(8):e2500720
PMID: 42594326
Abstract
This review shares the ongoing work of the global Worldwide Innovative Network (WIN) Consortium for Precision Medicine to synthesize emerging cancer treatment data and to define the requirements for a common global cancer database that can truly support precision oncology. We performed a narrative review of emerging cancer treatment data, molecular profiling technologies, and existing clinicogenomic databases, focusing on how tumors are characterized, how subgroups are defined, and how demographic, lifestyle, and environmental factors are captured. The growth in molecular profiling technologies and the development of new targeted therapies are transforming cancer care. Tumors, regardless of tissue origin, are increasingly defined as composites of multiple, often rare, subgroups, each with distinct biology and likely response to specific therapies, based on multidimensional profiling of the tumor and its microenvironment. The solution lies in building vast databases that capture racial and ethnic diversity, reflected in genomic data, as well as diet and lifestyle factors that may have epigenetic impact on gene expression and post-translational modifications. A truly inclusive and informative data set must reflect global diversity, and there are multiple examples of demography-dependent differences in genomic signals. With members caring for and studying patients with cancer across five continents, WIN is actively exploring pathways to create a global cancer database, rich in clinical and molecular detail, granular enough for precise analysis, and large enough to power artificial intelligence-driven insights, provided appropriate data quality, validation, and governance frameworks are in place. This review surveys the current landscape and outlines practical paths forward to achieve this goal.
Address:
McGill University Centre for Translational Research in Cancer and Segal Cancer Centre, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, QC, Canada.; Worldwide Innovative Network (WIN) Association-WIN Consortium, Chevilly-Larue, France.; Legorreta Cancer Center at Brown University, Providence, RI.; Department of Biomedical Informatics, and Huntsman Cancer Center, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT.; Worldwide Innovative Network (WIN) Association-WIN Consortium, Chevilly-Larue, France.; Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI.; Worldwide Innovative Network (WIN) Association-WIN Consortium, Chevilly-Larue, France.; ProCan, Children's Medical Research Institute, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.; The Kinghorn Cancer Centre, St Vincent's Hospital, Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia.; School of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.; Jusidman Cancer Center, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan, Israel.; Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.; Legorreta Cancer Center at Brown University, Providence, RI.; Department of Medicine, Brown University, Providence, RI.; Department of Biostatistics, Brown University, Providence, RI.; Avera Cancer Institute, Sioux Falls, SD.; Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel.; The Jackson Laboratory, The Maine Cancer Genomics Initiative, Bar Harbor, ME.; Vyas Cancer Research (VCR Park), Maharanipeta, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India.; Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, China.; Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre, Mumbai, India.; Legorreta Cancer Center at Brown University, Providence, RI.; The Kinghorn Cancer Centre, St Vincent's Hospital, Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia.; School of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.; Burjeel Cancer Institute, Burjeel Medical City, Abu Dhabi, UAE.; Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.; College of Medicine, Ras Al Khaimah Medical and Health Sciences University, Ras Al Khaimah, UAE.; Centre Hospitalier du Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Luxembourg.; University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Luxembourg.; Luxembourg Institute of Health, Luxembourg, Luxembourg.; Luxembourg Institute of Health, Luxembourg, Luxembourg.; King Hussein Cancer Center, Amman, Jordan.; National Center for Cancer Care and Research Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar.; Department of Medical Oncology, Centre Léon Bérard, Lyon, France.; University of Lyon, Claude Bernard Lyon 1 University, INSERM 1052, CNRS 5286, Centre Léon Bérard, Cancer Research Center of Lyon, Lyon, France.; Department of Medical Oncology, INCLIVA Biomedical Research Institute, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain.; CIBERONC, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain.; ProCan, Children's Medical Research Institute, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.; Catalan Institute of Oncology, Barcelona, Spain.; Federal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Education I.M.Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Sechenovskiy University, Moscow, Russian Federation.; Jusidman Cancer Center, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan, Israel.; Tata Memorial Centre, Affiliated to Homi Bhabha National Institute, National Cancer Grid, Mumbai, India.; University of Medicine and Pharmacy Iuliu Hatieganu, Cluj, Romania.; Academy of Medical Sciences, Bucharest, Romania.; Rutgers Cancer Institute, New Brunswick, NJ.; Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Barcelona, Spain.; Vall d'Hebron Hospital Campus (VHIO), Barcelona, Spain.; Wake Forest University Health Sciences/Atrium Health (WFUHS), Winston-Salem, NC.; Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Barcelona, Spain.; University of Vic-Central University of Catalonia, Vic, Spain.; Medical Oncology Department, Oncobell Program IDIBELL Institut Català d'Oncologia (ICO) Duran i Reynals Hospital, Clinical Sciences Department, Bellvitge Campus, University of Barcelona. CIBERONC, Barcelona, Spain.; CHAIM Medical Resource Organization, New York, NY.; School of Population and Global Health McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.; Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA.; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.; Homewood Research Institute, Guelph, ON, Canada.; University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.
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