Pan-cancer is a relatively new term, which is usually used in the research of cancer genomics and transcriptomics. It refers to the comprehensive analysis across multiple cancer types or subtypes, rather than focusing on a single cancer type. Pan-cancer analysis aims to identify genes, pathways, biomarkers or other features in various cancer types, which may be driven by the same molecular mechanism or biological process.

One of the pan-cancer analysis projects is Cancer Genome Map (TCGA), which analyzes thousands of samples and covers dozens of cancer types. This large-scale data set enables researchers to use bioinformatics tools and statistical methods to explore the complex patterns and interactions among various cancer types, thus making great progress in understanding, diagnosing and treating cancer.