When it comes to precision oncology, the path from variant to therapy is often tangled in complexity. For more than a decade, Sara Patterson and Cara Statz - our oncology experts - have been at the forefront of untangling that web. With thousands of variants reviewed and clinical trials tracked, they’ve helped shape the Cancer Knowledgebase (CKB) into a resource that doesn’t just keep up with evidence, but anticipates clinical needs.
In this interview, Sara and Cara reflect on the challenges they’ve faced, the breakthroughs they’ve driven, and how CKB has evolved into a powerhouse for actionable insights in cancer care.
Breaking Down Early Barriers
Q: You’ve both been curating oncology data for over a decade. What were some of the most frustrating barriers early on - and how has CKB changed that?
Cara: In the beginning, oncology resources were incomplete - missing key variants, drugs, and trial information. Curators had to fill gaps manually, which slowed everything down. That frustration directly fueled the creation of CKB.
Sara: By structuring data in a single, relational database, CKB made content comprehensive, connected, and easy to access. It also enabled fast turnaround for clinical reporting, which is critical for oncologists and their patients. Built with end users in mind, CKB’s flexible design continues to adapt as new data types emerge.
Ensuring Clinical Relevance
Q: Variant interpretation often lacks context or consistency. How does CKB address that?
Cara: Different sources describe variants in different ways, leading to confusion. CKB standardizes everything - using HGNC and HGVS nomenclature, standardized ontologies like the Disease Ontology, and controlled vocabularies - so terms are consistent across variants, tumor types, evidence, and trials.
Sara: Human expert curation adds another layer of quality control, ensuring uniform interpretation (e.g., labeling variants as gain- vs. loss-of-function). At the same time, CKB’s “hooks” allow users to map these standardized terms to their own systems without losing context.
The result: variant data that’s uniform, searchable, and clinically relevant - helping users find the right information quickly and reliably.
Staying Ahead in a Fast-Moving Field
Q: Oncology moves fast - new biomarkers, trials, approvals. How does CKB keep pace?
Cara: Our team curates daily. We capture new trial data weekly, monitor FDA approvals and guideline updates monthly, and add abstracts from major meetings. Variants of uncertain significance are revisited frequently, since new evidence can change their clinical meaning.
Sara: Automation helps too. Nightly updates from clinicaltrials.gov ensure trial statuses remain current. Together, expert curation and automation mean users can trust CKB to deliver the most current, clinically relevant information - without carrying the heavy lift themselves.
From Data to Interpretation
Q: Many tools offer raw data, but CKB delivers interpretation. Why does that matter for oncologists and pathologists?
Cara: Raw data forces clinicians to dig through the literature themselves. CKB removes that burden by providing curated interpretations - whether a variant drives gain or loss of function, which drugs are relevant, and what evidence supports it - saving hours of manual searching and accelerating clinical decisions.
Sara: This gives oncologists and molecular pathologists confidence that they aren’t missing critical insights. Instead of piecing together unstructured data, they can rely on CKB as a structured, comprehensive, and trustworthy resource that accelerates decision-making under pressure.
Tracking Resistance and Next-Line Options
Q: How has CKB shaped the way you think about drug resistance or treatment prioritization?
Cara: CKB makes it easier to track the “arms race” between targeted therapies and tumor evolution. Resistance variants are captured alongside sensitivity data for second-, third-, and even fourth-generation therapies.
Sara: When resistance appears, oncologists can immediately see next-line options. CKB also accounts for tumor context - the same variant may behave differently in different cancers. That nuance supports smarter treatment prioritization and helps patients access the best available options.
Cutting Through the Noise
Q: With thousands of variants, how does CKB help surface what actually matters?
Cara: Evidence is ranked so that clinically relevant findings rise to the top - such as FDA approvals or guideline-supported variants. Users see the most actionable insights first.
Sara: Variant detail pages pull together broader context (e.g., category-level variant associations and relationships) and allow filtering by approval status, trial phase, or efficacy evidence. Instead of sifting through thousands of variants, labs can zero in on the handful that matter most for patient care.
Behind the Scenes
Q: What do you wish more people knew about the work behind CKB?
Cara: Scale and passion. CKB now holds 48,000+ variants and 45,000+ efficacy evidence annotations. Keeping that current requires a small but dedicated team of curators working under rigorous SOPs and QC processes.
Sara: Our curators aren’t just data experts - they’re motivated by the impact on patients. And they work closely with software engineers to ensure enhancements always align with real clinical needs. That combination of expertise and purpose-driven collaboration is what makes CKB a trusted resource.
Smart Prioritization
Q: With so many variants, how do you decide what to curate first?
Cara: We use a triage strategy. Priority starts with actionable genes - variants tied to treatments, trials, or with predicted protein function changes, and high-frequency variants. For evidence, clinical efficacy data are curated first, followed by preclinical evidence tied to specific variants.
Sara: Priorities shift as new evidence emerges. A “non-actionable” gene today may become actionable overnight if linked to a trial. This ensures users always have the most clinically meaningful content at their fingertips.
Handling Conflicting Evidence
Q: Oncology data often conflicts. How does CKB manage that?
Cara: We don’t smooth it over - we capture it. If studies report opposite effects for the same variant, we label it “unknown” and include a summary of the conflicting results so that users can review the data. If patient outcomes conflict, both are recorded and flagged.
Sara: Users see the full picture, not just a simplified answer. Context is preserved with free-text annotations, giving clinicians and researchers the transparency they need to interpret the data themselves.
Supporting Pharma and R&D
Q: Beyond clinical reporting, how does CKB support pharma?
Cara: Pharma teams use CKB Boost to prioritize targets, design trials, and avoid costly missteps. One company used it to select variants for a protocol, ensuring their trial design aligned with the most relevant evidence.
Sara: More broadly, CKB helps pharma assess resistance patterns, explore drug classes, and identify promising or failed targets - saving time and resources in drug development.
Without CKB
Q: What would oncology look like without a tool like CKB?
Cara: Clinicians would be forced to manually piece together scattered data - literature, drug approvals, and clinical trials. That process is slow, inefficient, and risks missing key insights.
Sara: CKB saves time, ensures consistency, and gives clinicians confidence that they’re working from a complete, up-to-date picture - so they can focus on patients, not paperwork.
Looking Ahead
Q: How has the treatment landscape evolved - and where is it going?
Cara: In the decade since CKB launched, oncology has been transformed by targeted therapies, immunotherapies, and breakthroughs in once “undruggable” targets like KRAS G12C.
Sara: Immunotherapies remain promising, but reliable biomarkers are still missing. The future lies in integrating multiple data layers - variants, resistance, proteomics, immune context - toward fully individualized medicine.
Cancer remains complex and ever-changing, but each advance brings us closer to fitting the puzzle pieces together for every patient.
Closing Reflections
The journey from variant to therapy is never straightforward - but with CKB, it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. As this conversation with Sara Patterson and Cara Statz makes clear, CKB isn’t just about curating data - it’s about anticipating what clinicians, researchers and pharma need next and delivering it in a way that’s practical, consistent and trustworthy.
Thanks to the dedication of our oncology experts and the broader team behind them, CKB continues to evolve alongside the science transforming complexity into clarity and evidence into action. And while cancer care will always present new challenges, one thing is certain: CKB will keep pushing forward to give the oncology community the insights they need to improve outcomes for patients worldwide.
