Based at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, COSMIC is the world's most comprehensive resource for exploring the impact of somatic mutations in human cancer.All cancers arise as a result of the acquisition of mutations, many of which ultimately confer a growth advantage upon the cells in which they have occurred. There is a vast amount of information available in the published scientific literature about these changes. COSMIC provides researchers access to the world's knowledge of somatic mutations in human cancer in a single resource.