On Dec. 13, 2005, the National Cancer Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute launched a comprehensive effort to accelerate an understanding of the molecular basis of cancer through the application of genome analysis technologies, especially large-scale genome sequencing. The overall effort, called The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), began with a pilot project to determine the feasibility of a full-scale effort to systematically explore the universe of genomic changes involved in all types of human cancer. NCI and NHGRI each committed $50 million over 3 years to the TCGA Pilot Project. The project was expected to develop and test the complex science and technology framework needed to systematically identify and characterize the genetic mutations and other genomic changes associated with cancer.