Cancer patient recruitment commences for 100,000 Genomes Project

Cancer patients in Oxford are being given the chance to take part in the groundbreaking 100,000 Genomes Project for the first time.

The Oxford NHS Genomic Medicine Centre is the first in the country to begin recruiting patients with cancer into the project, which aims to sequence 100,000 genomes in order to improve understanding of rare diseases, cancer and infectious diseases.

Around 1,200 samples will be collected in Oxford from about 600 cancer patients, as well as about 2,000 samples from roughly 660 rare disease patients. All samples will be sequenced by Illumina, the project's designated sequencing partner.

The Oxford NHS Genomic Medicine Centre is one of 11 such centres in the country launched as part of the 100,000 Genomes Project last December.

Anna Schuh, director of the Oxford NHS Genomic Medicine Centre and associate professor of molecular diagnostics for the University's Department of Oncology, said: "This will allow eligible patients with rare diseases and their families and patients suffering from cancers to gain equitable access to state-of-the-art genomic diagnostics."