ASCO Knowledge Part V: CancerLinQ

“Shoppers have Amazon.

Students have Google.

Oncologists will have CancerLinQ”

-CNN

That quote appeared on a brochure I saw at ASCO and it peaked my interest in a special patient advocate session that was being held to introduce us to CancerLinQ, a health information technology platform. In January of 2015, ASCO and SAP, a software company teamed up to create a Big Data software platform. 

ASCO’s Chief Medical Officer, Rich Schilsky began the session by sharing some important facts with the advocates.

Only 3% of adults participate in clinical trials. 

Older adults (>65)  may not qualify to participate in clinical trials so their outcomes and adverse effects may not be known by others who also treat older adults. 

As more drugs get approved through the quick FDA approval process there is a need to capture the knowledge that is being generated as patients use these drugs.  

Currently cancer patient data is in “silos”( my word choice) at various cancer centers – NCI centers, academic centers, and community oncologist groups.

 CancerLinQ will gather data from patients from around the country into a secure, searchable database. 

CancerLinQ In A Nutshell : 

Electronic Medical Records (EMR) of cancer patients will be collected, “de-identified” and entered into the database. Once the data is entered an number of things can take place:

-Providers can compare the care they provide to guidelines.

-Oncologists can search the database for patients with similar attributes, diagnosis, mutations, and treatments. The oncologists can then with their patients decide which treatment plan is best.

-Researchers can look for patterns in the patient data

In the fall of 2015, the first version of CancerLinQ will roll out and include 500,000 individual records from 15 oncology practices in the US. 

For more information please visit CancerLinQ.org

Dee
Every Day is a Blessing!

When My Alma Mater and Cancer Center Work Together

In July, Rutgers University, my alma mater, and The Cancer Institute of New Jersey(CINJ) where I have been treated merged. Recently, I have noticed the wonderful collaboration between the doctors/ researchers at CINJ and the professors at Rutgers.

Just the other day I read two articles about that collaboration.

DATA
In Rutgers Today, you will find the article Battling Cancer with Big Data .The article discusses doctors at CINJ collaborating with computer engineers at the Rutgers Discovery Informatics Institute to determine a better way to treat patients with rare cancers and those with poor prognosis.  Manish Parashar is Director of RDI².

“Our team provides the computational engine to review thousands of images, so our      collaborators at the Cancer Institute can analyze these images, search the database, test hypotheses and answer important questions,”Parashar says. “We take the imaged samples and radiology studies from one patient and ask, ’Have I seen a case like this before?’”

Analyzing the data and using matching algorithms can be done in a matter of hours.The team is studying rare pediatric cancers as well as ovarian and pancreatic cancers and sarcomas. A clinical trial is ongoing.

DRUG RESISTANCE
Surviving ovarian cancer: Rutgers scientists attack drug resistant cancer cells presents the research being done by one of my Gynecologic Oncologists, Dr. Lorna Rodriguez and Tamara Minko, professor at Rutgers Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy.  CD44 is a membrane protein which when over expressed causes ovarian cancer metastasis and drug resistance. In their study, which used lab mice, the researchers found that by using small inhibiting RNA molecules to decrease the level of CD44 and the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel  they were able to cause cell death and tumor shrinkage in the mice.
Journal article:

Targeted Nanomedicine for Suppression of CD44 and Simultaneous Cell Death Induction in Ovarian Cancer: An Optimal Delivery of siRNA and Anticancer Drug

I am excited to see what the future of cancer research will look like as my Alma Mater and my cancer center continue to work together.


Dee
Every Day is a Blessing!