ResMarkerDB: a database of biomarkers of response to antibody therapy in breast and colorectal cancer

Abstract

The clinical efficacy of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies for breast and colorectal cancer has greatly contributed to the improvement of patients' outcomes by individualizing their treatments according to their genomic background. However, primary or acquired resistance to treatment reduces its efficacy. In this context, the identification of biomarkers predictive of drug response would support research and development of new alternative treatments. Biomarkers play a major role in the genomic revolution, supporting disease diagnosis and treatment decision-making. Currently, several molecular biomarkers of treatment response for breast and colorectal cancer have been described. However, information on these biomarkers is scattered across several resources, and needs to be identified, collected and properly integrated to be fully exploited to inform monitoring of drug response in patients. Therefore, there is a need of resources that offer biomarker data in a harmonized manner to the user to support the identification of actionable biomarkers of response to treatment in cancer. ResMarkerDB was developed as a comprehensive resource of biomarkers of drug response in colorectal and breast cancer. It integrates data of biomarkers of drug response from existing repositories, and new data extracted and curated from the literature (referred as ResCur). ResMarkerDB currently features 266 biomarkers of diverse nature. Twenty-five percent of these biomarkers are exclusive of ResMarkerDB. Furthermore, ResMarkerDB is one of the few resources offering non-coding DNA data in response to drug treatment. The database contains more than 500 biomarker-drug-tumour associations, covering more than 100 genes. ResMarkerDB provides a web interface to facilitate the exploration of the current knowledge of biomarkers of response in breast and colorectal cancer. It aims to enhance translational research efforts in identifying actionable biomarkers of drug response in cancer.Instituto de Salud Carlos III-Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional [grant numbers: PIE15/00008, CP10/00524, CPII16/00026]; Instituto de Salud Carlos III-Fondo Social Europeo [FI18/00034]; and the European Commission Horizon 2020 Programme 2014–2020 under grant agreements MedBioinformatics [grant number: 634143] and Elixir-Excelerate [grant number: 676559]. The Research Programme on Biomedical Informatics is a member of the Spanish National Bioinformatics Institute, Plataforma de Recursos Biomoleculares y Bioinformáticos-Instituto de Salud Carlos III [grant number: PT13/0001/0023], of the PE I + D + i 2013–2016, funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional. The Departamento de Ciencias Experimentales y de la Salud is a Unidad de Excelencia María de Maeztu, funded by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (reference number: MDM-2014-0370)