Application of Informatics to Cancer Research

Dr. London's medical informatics research efforts are focused o­n the application of computer technology to cancer-related basic science and cancer clinical trials research. To facilitate basic science research at KCC, Dr. London's work involves the development of intranet-based translational research data acquisition. The intranet is used to acquire research data from multiple laboratories and clinical departments associated with program projects. The goal is to facilitate data entry, while providing secure access to all the laboratories' data for comprehensive analysis and review, including biostatistical analysis.

Development also continues o­n a repository of available tissue specimens for biomarker research with researchers from other NCI-designated cancer center members of the Pennsylvania Cancer Alliance. This project utilizes web-based databases for the acquisition and display of available biospecimens.

Dr. London represents the KCC for the NCI's Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG) initiative, which is building a national grid connecting individuals and institutions to enable the sharing of data and tools, creating a World Wide Web of cancer research. KCC is a funded developer for the Integrated Cancer Research (ICR) workspace, and a funded adopter in the Pathology and Tumor Bank Tools (TBPT) workspace. The ICR workspace project involves the adoption and modification of the NCI Center for Bioinformatics' (NCICB) microarray data portal, caARRAY. Dr. London's group is modifying the portal so that it can be integrated into the workflow normally found in cancer centers. The TBPT workspace project centers o­n the adoption of the caTISSUE CORE software application for biospecimen banking, and its integration into the informatics infrastructure at KCC. KCC is also a funded adopter in another TBPT project, the cancer Text Information Extraction System (caTIES). This project involves the automatic extraction of text from surgical pathology reports and the de-identification of the information for HIPAA compliance. When completed, caTIES will provide automated annotation for tissue bank databases with information found in surgical pathology reports. Dr. London also is a funded participant in the caBIG Data Sharing and Intellectual Capital work group, which is setting policy for the complex data sharing and intellectual capital issues involved in the establishment of a national research grid.

Dr. London's involvement in clinical research encompasses the development of computer systems for clinical trials, IRB, and Data Safety Monitoring (human subjects protection). An application to automate the calculations involved in patient chemotherapy regimens was developed by Dr. London's group, and is deployed at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

Medical Informatics; Bioinformatics