Asian Cancer Research Group

The Asian Cancer Research Group (ACRG) is a non-profit pharmaceutical consortium established in 2010 by Eli Lilly, Merck (MSD), and Pfizer to accelerate research into cancers prevalent in Asian populations. The group's primary mission was to generate and share large-scale genomic and pharmacogenomic data to identify molecular subtypes and therapeutic targets for gastric and lung cancers. ACRG is most notable for its 2015 molecular classification of gastric cancer, which defined four distinct subtypes (MSI, MSS/EMT, MSS/TP53+, and MSS/TP53-) with significant prognostic and therapeutic implications. Although the group's primary data generation phase has concluded, its open-access datasets continue to be a foundational resource for global oncology research and precision medicine development.