# An open knowledge graph linking trials, results, biomarkers, drugs and recommendations

Source: https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-data-open-evidence-knowledge-graph/  
OnCo record `idea-data-open-evidence-knowledge-graph` (Idea). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Build a public, machine-readable map connecting every cancer trial to its results, the drugs and biomarkers involved, and the guideline recommendations it supports, with a source for every link.

## Summary

Evidence in oncology is scattered across registries, papers, labels and guidelines with no shared identifiers. An open knowledge graph (trial identifiers, PICO elements, structured results, drug and biomarker ontologies, guideline recommendations, provenance for each edge) would let software answer 'what is the evidence for drug X in population Y' reproducibly. OncoKB, CIViC, Open Targets and ClinicalTrials.gov are partial graphs; the proposal funds their federation under open licences with a governance body and curation incentives.

## Fields

- Kind: Idea
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Hypothesis: An open evidence graph will reduce the time to compile the evidence base for a guideline question from weeks of manual review to hours, and will be adopted as the backbone of at least three decision-support products within three years.
- Rationale: Open Targets and Wikidata show that open, federated knowledge graphs with provenance attract community curation and become infrastructure; oncology's clinical evidence layer lacks one.
- Proposed test: Build the graph for two diseases from existing open sources; have guideline panels use it for one update cycle and measure time saved and errors found versus manual review.
- Maturity: early-clinical
- Actor: philanthropy

## Sources

- Open Targets: https://www.opentargets.org/

## Connected records

- collections: [awesome-cancer-variant-resources](https://onco.cc/collections/awesome-cancer-variant-resources/), [CIViC](https://onco.cc/collections/civic/), [ClinicalTrials.gov](https://onco.cc/collections/clinicaltrials-gov/), [OncoKB](https://onco.cc/collections/oncokb/), [Open Targets Platform](https://onco.cc/collections/open-targets/)
- fronts: [AI & Computation](https://onco.cc/fronts/ai-computation/)
- bottlenecks: [Data silos](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-data-silos/), [Knowledge reaches practice too slowly](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-knowledge-diffusion/)
- ideas: [A public API serving the current standard of care for any cancer, stage and biomarker](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-data-standard-of-care-api/), [Decision support that cites the exact trial and guideline line it relies on](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-data-provenance-first-decision-support/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/idea-data-open-evidence-knowledge-graph.json