The global cancer genomics consortium's third annual symposium: from oncogenomics to cancer care

The Global Cancer Genomics Consortium (GCGC) is a cohesive network of oncologists, cancer biologists and structural and genomic experts residing in six institutions from Portugal, United Kingdom, Japan, India, and United States. The team is using its combined resources and infrastructures to address carefully selected, shared, burning questions in cancer medicine. The Third Annual Symposium was organized by the Institute of Molecular Medicine, Lisbon Medical School, Lisbon, Portugal, from September 18 to 20, 2013. To highlight the benefits and limitations of recent advances in cancer genomics, the meeting focused on how to better translate our gains in oncogenomics to cancer patients while engaging our younger colleagues in cancer medicine at-large. Over two hundreds participants actively discussed some of the most recent advances in the areas cancer genomics, transcriptomics and cancer system biology and how to best apply such knowledge to cancer therapeutics, biomarkers discovery and drug development, and an essential role played by bio-banking throughout the process. In brief, the GCGC symposium provided a platform for students and translational cancer researchers to share their excitement and worries as we are beginning to translate the gains in oncogenomics to a better cancer patient treatment.