Project Data Sphere Database Adds Multiple Myeloma Data

CARY, N.C.--()--Project Data Sphere, LLC (PDS), an independent not-for-profit initiative of the CEO Roundtable on Cancer’s Life Sciences Consortium (LSC), recently added its first multiple myeloma clinical trial data, broadening the range of datasets available through this innovative research library-laboratory. The addition of the comparator arms from two trials studying VELCADE® (bortezomib) in patients with multiple myeloma adds to the nearly 30,000 patient lives of data available for research.

Both trials were jointly provided by Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited) and the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. The comparator arms of the two trials study melphalan and prednisone in patients with previously untreated multiple myeloma, and high-dose dexamethasone in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.

Currently nearly 1,200 authorized users on the Project Data Sphere® platform can access datasets across core cancer tumor types including breast, colorectal, gastric, head and neck, kidney, liver, lung, melanoma, myelofibrosis, ovarian, pancreatic and prostate cancer, in addition to the first blood cancer datasets recently added. To ensure researchers can realize the full potential of this data, PDS teamed with CEO Roundtable on Cancer Member SAS, a leader in data and health analytics, who developed and hosts the site and provides free analytic tools to registered users within the www.ProjectDataSphere.org environment.

Peer-reviewed papers referencing the Project Data Sphere initiative have appeared in The Oncologist and a series of research abstracts were published in conjunction with the 2015 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Additional posters have been selected for presentation, including at the recent 2016 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium. Two of The Oncologist research papers focus on prostate cancer research, including the collaboration with Sage Bionetworks and the Prostate Cancer Foundation resulting in The Prostate Cancer DREAM Challenge.

Through the Prostate Cancer DREAM Challenge, more than 50 teams comprised of more than 500 solvers in the cancer research and computational biology community worked to find solutions to key unanswered clinical research questions and explore innovative research and modeling approaches. The two specific areas addressed through this crowdsourced research approach are to 1) predict survival for prostate cancer patients using clinical data and, 2) predict treatment discontinuation for prostate cancer patients treated with docetaxel. Peer-reviewed publications resulting from that effort are forthcoming.

“The Project Data Sphere initiative is providing researchers with access to patient-level data and creating unique opportunities to advance research,” said Joel Marcus, co-founder of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. and Alexandria Venture Investments and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. “The more data that can be aggregated around specific types of cancer, including multiple myeloma, the more we can help speed the development of new, more effective therapies.”

The progress of the Project Data Sphere effort has been made possible through collaborations with organizations that provided data and catalyzed the use of the platform for research innovation. Data providers include: Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Celgene, EMD Serono, Janssen, Lilly, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Millennium, Pfizer, Sanofi, Synta and The Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, one of the five U.S. network groups of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) Program.

About the CEO Roundtable on Cancer

The CEO Roundtable on Cancer was founded in 2001, when former President George H.W. Bush challenged a group of executives to "do something bold and venturesome about cancer within your own corporate families." The CEOs responded by creating and encouraging the widespread adoption of the CEO Cancer Gold Standard™ which calls for organizations to evaluate their health benefits and workplace culture and take extensive, concrete actions in five key areas of health and wellness to address cancer in the workplace. The Life Sciences Consortium (LSC) (www.ceo-lsc.org) was formed by the CEO Roundtable on Cancer as a means of bringing together leading oncology pharmaceutical/biotechnology companies to enable a transformation in research and development activities. Their aim is to deliver more effective oncology therapies to patients faster by collaborating on solving issues common to all cancer companies engaged in drug discovery and development that cannot be solved by any single company alone. An earlier outcome of the LSC was the creation of the Standard Terms of Agreement for Research Trial (START) clauses in conjunction with the National Cancer Institute. The creation of these “common language” contract templates aims to shorten the contract negotiation time prior to opening a clinical research trial. For more information, please visit www.CEORoundtableOnCancer.org.

About Project Data Sphere, LLC

Project Data Sphere, LLC (PDS), an independent, not-for-profit initiative of the CEO Roundtable on Cancer’s Life Sciences Consortium (LSC), operates the Project Data Sphere platform (www.ProjectDataSphere.org) which provides one place where the research community can broadly share, integrate and analyze historical, patient-level cancer phase III comparator-arm data with the goal of advancing future research to improve the lives of cancer patients and their families around the world.

Contacts

Project Data Sphere, LLC
Deborah Dion, 919-531-0962
deoborah.dion@projectdatasphere.org

Contacts

Project Data Sphere, LLC
Deborah Dion, 919-531-0962
deoborah.dion@projectdatasphere.org