caBIG™ Feature – November 2006

Analyzing Brain Cancer In a "Big" Way

A Research Model of the Future

GMDI and REMBRANDT do not stop at the boundaries of brain cancer.

“The GMDI represents a prototype of a change in the paradigm in how we do cancer research in general,” says Howard A. Fine, M.D., chief of the Neuro-Oncology Branch at NCI’s Center for Cancer Research, and of the National Institute of Neurologic Disorders and Stroke.

Whereas, in the past, “cancer research was pretty much limited to individual investigators working on small, but individual, problems,” says Fine, today’s team-based, large-scale initiatives offer a more systemic approach.

From an information technology perspective, “systemic” means integrating an increasing amount of data and utilizing standardized formats that allow a wide variety of groups to contribute to the larger pool of information. On the research side, the GMDI provides a way to coordinate the processes researchers use to gather and genotype tumor tissue.

The Future: Personalized and Predictive

The benefits of this large-scale approach are already apparent in emerging research results. Fine and his colleagues at the NCI recently analyzed the genes expressed by 176 brain tumor samples. The team found new information about particular genes that make specific brain tumors tick. Fine is now attempting to identify specific genetic signatures that might allow doctors to predict the best course of treatment for individual patients.

"As a clinician who takes care of patients," Fine says, "it strikes me that all I can say today is ‘you have this brain tumor type, we know that there are 100 people like you in the world, and this is the best therapy, on average.’ "

However, he predicts that because of GMDI and REMBRANDT, he will be able to tell a future patient, "You have a brain tumor with genetic mutations in genes X, Y, and Z. Those genes give the tumor these specific characteristics. Therefore, you need therapies A, B, and C."

How far into the future will we see such treatment scenarios?

“REMBRANDT and the GMDI are ways of getting there in a very real timeframe,” Fine says. “Not 15 years from now. Not 10 years from now. But sometime in the next 5-6 years.”

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