The Roche Cancer Genome Database 2.0

We have constructed an integrated biological information system termed the Roche Cancer Genome Database (RCGDB) combining different human mutation databases already publicly available. This data is further extended by hand-curated information from publications.The current version of the RCGDB provides a user-friendly graphical interface that gives access to the data in different ways: (1) Single interactive search by genes, samples, cell lines, diseases, as well as pathways, (2) batch searches for genes and cell lines, (3) customized searches for regularly occurring requests, and (4) an advanced query interface enabling the user to query for samples and mutations by various filter criteria.The interfaces of the presented database enable the user to search and view mutations in an intuitive and straight-forward manner. The database is freely accessible at http://rcgdb.bioinf.uni-sb.de/MutomeWeb/ webcite.Facilitated by the development of new high throughput techniques like SNP arrays the identification of genes involved in complex diseases such as cancer has made enormous progress over the recent years. This resulted in a huge amount of information on human genetic variations which have been described in various genes associated with a wide variety of diseases [1-3]. Sequence variations are being studied for a better understanding of the mechanism and development of cancer as a mutation-driven disease [4]. Furthermore, somatic mutations in cancer can be used in clinical studies and molecular pathology to characterize tumor types, to predict response to treatment, and to find the best suited treatment. Thus, mutation analysis can play an important role in drug discovery and personalized healthcare.The proportion of mutations causally implicated in cancer is still unknown especially due to the high number of mutations between different tumors [5-8]. Although the number of unique variations for each cancer genome can be very high [9,10], only a few somatic variations wil