By Administrator at 28 Sep 2016, 09:01 AM

What does NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have in common with the National Cancer Institute (NCI)? The need to mine through mind-boggling amounts of data. In NASA’s case, the data is astronomical and results from probes, satellites and other instruments that pull data from space.

NCI, meanwhile, is attempting to sort through impressive amounts of biomedical data that could help in the fight against cancer. So while at first a partnership between JPL and NCI may seem counterintuitive, it actually makes perfect sense.

NASA has already developed complicated algorithms that can filter large amounts of data and pull out, as UPI put it, “anomalies that might be interesting to astronomers and physicists — they pull out the statistical or mathematical needles from the proverbial haystack.”

The Early Detection Research Network (EDRN), which is an initiative of NCI aimed at translating biomarker information into clinical applications, revealing cancer risk and evaluating new ways to test for cancer in its earliest stages, is particularly in need of JPL’s help.

For 16 years, EDRN has been pooling data related to cancer biomarkers and genetic characteristics of certain cancers. However, as the data grew they needed a way to share and integrate the data and examine specifics, such as whether the data came from early-stage or late-stage cancer specimens or whether any treatments had been tried.

Initially, there was no uniform way of labeling, storing and sharing biomarker specimens being collected at research centers across the U.S. JPL explained:

“Ten sites may have high-quality specimens for study, but if their common data elements — age of patient, cancer type and other characteristics — aren't listed uniformly, they can't be studied as a whole.”

JPL was able to help further EDRN’s goal of pooling the cancer data into one searchable network, which could ultimately help with early diagnosis of cancer and cancer risk. Sudhir Srivastava, chief of NCI's Cancer Biomarkers Research Group and head of EDRN, said in a news release:

“JPL told us, 'We do this type of thing all the time! That's how we manage our Planetary Data System.'"

To date, the JPL and EDRN partnership has resulted in six new cancer biomarkers approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and nine biomarkers approved for use in Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments labs. The biomarkers have since been used in more than 1 million patient diagnostic tests.

The research partnership has been extended through 2021. Already on the radar for the future is image-recognition technology that could compare images from CT scans with archived images to reveal early signs of cancer based on a person’s age, ethnic background and more.

Sources
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory September 14, 2016
UPI September 14, 2016

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