Grant Number:	1U24CA315540-01 Interpret this number
Primary Investigator:	Chakravarty, Debyani
Organization:	Sloan-Kettering Inst Can Research
Project Title:	Expanding Oncokb, a Scalable and Reliable Precision Oncology Knowledgebase.
Fiscal Year:	2026

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The field of precision oncology is rapidly growing in both complexity and scale, driven by newer generations of biomarker-targeted drugs and molecular profiling techniques that generate increasingly large and diverse genomic data. As a result, clinicians in the point-of-care setting and researchers analyzing population-scale cancer cohorts face a critical need for expert-guided and standardized interpretations of this information. This information must also be aligned with the FDA drug labels, clinical guidelines, and current research to reliably inform cancer diagnosis, prognosis, therapy selection, and clinical trial enrollment. OncoKB, the first and only FDA-recognized somatic cancer variant knowledgebase, developed at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), addresses this critical need. Through its public website, application programming interface (API), and integration into clinical reporting, OncoKB delivers rigorously curated interpretations of cancer biomarkers to its multidisciplinary community of precision oncology clinicians and scientists. OncoKB has established itself as a global resource for precision oncology, supporting cancer research (>4,800 citations; ~25,000 monthly users), clinical care (thousands of tumor profiling reports annotated per month at twelve hospital systems, including MSK), and industry innovation (biopharma and diagnostics). While the use of OncoKB in large academic medical centers, hospital systems and industry brings in limited revenue to support 50% of its operations, 90% of the users are freely supported academic researchers. We, therefore, seek funding to meet the increasing demand from these users and to expand the knowledgebase based on the rapidly evolving landscape of the field. We will expand OncoKB to incorporate emerging classes of biomarkers, including diagnostic and prognostic cancer markers, expression-based biomarkers detectable by RNA sequencing and immunohistochemistry, and germine variants (Aim 1). We will employ artificial intelligence (AI)–driven, human-in-the-loop curation to scale evidence capture to whole genome coverage while maintaining the FDA-recognized rigor of the reviewed content (Aim 2). Finally, we will expand outreach, training, and technical support by establishing a program that accelerates adoption of OncoKB in community cancer centers, where the majority of U.S. patients receive care (Aim 3). Together, these efforts will ensure that OncoKB remains a reliable and scalable knowledgebase that advances cancer research, improves clinical decision-making, and brings the benefits of precision oncology to patients across all cancer care settings—fulfilling the NCI mission to advance knowledge and help all people live longer, healthier lives.





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