CGMD: An integrated database of Cancer Genes and Markers

Cancer is a dysregulation of apoptosis process a programmed cell death through which the cell number is tightly regulated. Many factors affect apoptosis including tumor genes (TGs). Moreover, several researchers identified TGs and demonstrated their functions in various types of tumors or normal samples. Surprisingly, it has also been indicated that the expression of tumor markers in the development of cancer type is also one of the important target sites for clinical applications. Therefore, integrating tumor genes and tumor markers with experimental evidences might definitely provide valuable information for further investigation of TGs and their crosstalk in cancer. To achieve this objective, we developed a database known as Cancer Gene Marker Database (CGMD) which integrates cancer genes and markers based on experimental background. The major goal of CGMD is to provide: 1) systemic treatment approaches and advancements of different cancer treatments in present scenario; 2) Pooling of different genes and markers with their molecular characterization and involvements in different pathways; 3) Free availability of CGMD at www.cgmd.in . The database consists of 309 genes plus 206 markers and also includes sequences of a list of 40 different human cancers and moreover, all the characterized markers have detailed descriptions in appropriate manner. CGMD extraction is collective and informative by using web resources like National Cancer Institute (NCI) and National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), UniProtKB, KEGG and EMBOSS. CGMD provides updated literature regarding different cancer annotations and their detail molecular descriptions such as CpG islands, promoters, exons of cancer genes and their active sites, physico-chemical properties and also systematically represented the domains of characterized proteins.