Project Data Sphere® Cancer Research Platform’s Value and Utility Praised by Researchers

-- Access to Large Cancer Datasets Housed in the Platform Enabled Validation of Existing Models and Facilitated Novel Outcomes Analysis --

CARY, N.C.--()--Research published on February 2, 2017, in the journal PLOS One1 again illustrates the efficacy and significance of the Project Data Sphere (PDS) Cancer Research Platform.

According to the manuscript, Assessment of a Prognostic Model, PSA Metrics and Toxicities in Metastatic Castrate Resistant Cancer (mCRPC) Using Data from Project Data Sphere, the general intentions of the research were to: (i) validate a common prognostic model for overall survival, (ii) determine the impact of concomitant medications and Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) dynamics on overall survival, and (iii) evaluate factors associated with potential adverse events as a result of chemotherapy drug, Docetaxel.

The researchers accessed data from six clinical trials, which included 2,449 de-identified patients with mCRPC.

“Our aim was to use data from the Project Data Sphere platform to address several outstanding issues in meta-analytic data in prostate cancer care,” said Dr. Anthony Joshua, Head of Medical Oncology at the Kinghorn Cancer Centre, Sydney, Australia and Affiliate Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada. “We found the platform—with large, diverse datasets—to be a very suitable and unique environment for our research, thereby demonstrating its utility for validating and generating models for prostate cancer care as well as giving insights into issues never before studied such as the impact of concomitant medications on care. I have no doubt the value will continue to grow as more clinical trial data is uploaded and shared and as more researchers learn about the Project Data Sphere platform.”

A collaborative online research environment, PDS provides data scientists with no-cost access to cancer trial data provided by leading pharmaceutical companies and research organizations, as well as access to sophisticated analytics software tools provided by SAS. Moreover, the platform allows researchers to link published manuscripts directly back to their supporting datasets, which aligns with the scientific community’s data transparency expectations.

“I add my congratulations to Dr. Anthony Joshua and his colleagues on the publication of their important manuscript in PLOS One,” said Dr. Martin J. Murphy, Chief Executive Officer, Project Data Sphere, LLC. “The Project Data Sphere library-laboratory has now been the source of research materials for eight peer-reviewed primary publications in top-tier journals in a very short time span. This data-rich platform is being built to accelerate cancer research through data sharing, and excellent publications as this most recent one in PLOS One provides further proof of principle of its vitality.”

The research was supported by the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Hold’em for Life Prostate Cancer Research Fund and Stanley Tessis Research Fund.

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About Project Data Sphere, LLC

Project Data Sphere, LLC, is an independent, not-for-profit initiative of the CEO Roundtable on Cancer Inc.’s Life Sciences Consortium. The CEO Roundtable on Cancer is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded by President George H.W. Bush to develop and implement initiatives that reduce the risk of cancer, enable early diagnosis, facilitate access to the best available treatments, and hasten the discovery of novel and more effective anti-cancer therapies.

For more information, visit www.ProjectDataSphere.org, or follow the Project Data Sphere initiative on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ProjDataSphere.

1Pitcher B, Khoja L, Hamilton RJ, Abdallah K, Pintilie M, et al. (2017) Assessment of a prognostic model, PSA metrics and toxicities in metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer using data from Project Data Sphere (PDS). PLOS ONE 12(2): e0170544. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0170544. Available at: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0170544

Contacts

Carol Dorn Sanders
Project Data Sphere, LLC
A not-for-profit, independent initiative of the CEO Roundtable on Cancer, Inc.’s Life Sciences Consortium
919-531-4260
Carol.DornSanders@ProjectDataSphere.org

Release Summary

Research published on February 2, 2017, in the journal PLOS One again illustrates the efficacy and significance of the Project Data Sphere (PDS) cancer research platform.

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Contacts

Carol Dorn Sanders
Project Data Sphere, LLC
A not-for-profit, independent initiative of the CEO Roundtable on Cancer, Inc.’s Life Sciences Consortium
919-531-4260
Carol.DornSanders@ProjectDataSphere.org