Committee - Bioinformatics Committee Bioinformatics Committee COMMITTEE (February, 2007)   BIOINFORMATICS COMMITTEE Attendees: Brenda Young, Marcia Urie, Jeff Michalski, Jonathon Knisely Deborah, Walter Bosch, Jeff Bradley, Ying Xiao, Jim Galvin, Jim Purdy, Bhadrasain Vikram, Kyounghwa Bae, Christine Chung, Issam ElNaga, Hank Brasteter, Robert Lustig, Jatinder Palta, Betty Martin, Rojymon Jacob, Joe Deasy, Ben Movsas, Javier F. Torres-Roca, Rajinder Singh Dhada, Anthony De Carolis. Bioinformatics is understood here in the broader sense of informatics and analysis issues which have a biological component (at any level). The proposed mission of the RTOG Bioinformatics Committee was discussed. As illustrated by the schema of Figure 1, data being accrued to clinical trials is multi-aspect (imaging, dose, QOL, biomarker, socioeconomic, clinical), and only analyses which bring all these data types together into an effective analysis which potentially generate important new hypotheses or models of treatment response (Figure created by the RTOG Outcomes Committee). JOD proposed the following concise mission statement of the committee: "To facilitate the gathering, understanding, and analyses of multi-aspect datasets in radiation oncology clinical trial research." Figure 1. The new RTOG outcomes model (courtesy the RTOG Outcomes/QOL Committee) The primary goal of the meeting was to air views concerning the major issues related to the Bioinformatics Committee. The minutes here are organized according to major issues discussed, as follows: 1. Related to standardizing data for new protocols. a) New types of imaging data will be needed as follow-up data, in particular MRI. PI's will need information on how to collect the data (Michalski) i) Imaging data which with patients as part of a referral can be poor (Knisely) ii) Follow-up: simple instructions can be made available to patients (i.e. an index card), so they can give it to imaging facility technologists. Does not eliminate problem, but helps. iii) Imaging QA/standardization is an important unsolved issue. But was deemed outside scope of Bioinformatics Committee. b) The question was raised of who would be primary technical repository for diagnostic imaging collected with radiation oncology clinical trials. In particular, although ACRIN has great technical capabilities and long experience. Radiation Oncology sometimes does have different needs which may be difficult for them to meet. (Michalski). c) Would be very useful to develop a template which can be given to session chairs and PI's which would describe standard thresholds of data and metadata which is being collected. i) Note: this goal is also shared by the Translational Research Program Committee, with respect to biomarker data (serum/urine/buffy coat/etc). ii) Was agreed this should be a near-term goal. iii) Once available, should be presented to and discussed with site chairs (Bradley) iv) Other people interested in developing this include Deborah Citrin. 2) Technical issues related to retrieving data were discussed. a) We reviewed previous conference call discussions regarding the Bioinformatics Committee efforts, in particular the long-term goal of linking databases (see Figure 2). b) Brenda Young discussed currently capability of ACR repository to store and query from among an enormous number of archived clinical images. c) The NCIA (NCI imaging archive) may provide an effective bioinformatics archive, although it is currently far from mature (Purdy). 3) [post-meeting discussion] A potential near-term (partial) solution to Bioinformatics data storage issues would be to adopt a vendor centric solution (Xiao). a) Potentially, IMPAC may provide tools which span much of the scope of what is needed. IMPAC potentially provides a constantly-improving software system which has: i) Image review capabilities. ii) Can store/retrieve 4-D in associated PACs. iii) Database centric (MSSQL), with associated query advantages. iv) Hooks for potential plug-ins for custom/open source v) Clinical registry data, in their tumor registry product vi) A proposal has been made to IMPAC to place servers around the country to speed up data upload speeds (Xiao) vii) As a follow-up, several committee minutes plan to meet in Philadelphia at Thomas Jefferson University in March to see capabilities of IMPAC relevant tools in-depth (Xiao, Deasy, Bosch, Rajinder S. Dahda (Elekta/IMPAC). 4) 'Inventory database': Inventory of current data would be extremely useful (Chung). Thus, an investigator could conveniently find out if data exists relevant to a given topic. a) Sometimes samples are not shown as being the same patient. b) Would be very useful to also know if outcomes are available (not necessary the outcome itself but as least whether it exists). c) Would include tissue, measured biomarkers, diagnostic images, RT objects (doses, contours, registered planning images). 5) The desirability of running pilot projects was brought up (Chung). a) it was agreed showing we can combine bio/image/dose data would be very useful to diagnose what next steps need to be taken as well as for the RTOG grant. b) In the near future, we would like to do one retrospective study. c) As reported by Movsas and Bruner in the Outcomes Committee, RTOG 0617 (PI: Bradley) has a panel of biomarker/tissue sampling which Joe Chang helped put together, as well as extensive imaging. d) Focusing on Phase III studies would be fruitful. [Adam Dicker, pre-meeting comment]. Action Items: 1. Follow-up potential expanded use of IMPAC registry/database tools [Suggested: Ying Xiao, J. Galvin, W. Bosch, J. Purdy, J. Deasy]. 2. Identify potential pilot projects [Suggested: Christine Chung; J. Deasy, J. Michalski]. 3. Begin collating items for a Bioinformatics/TRP template for new/developing protocols. [Suggested: Deborah Citrin (TRP/omics), Jeff Michalski (diagnostic), Walter Bosch (RT- objects), Dan Low (4-D/IGRT), Christine Chung (TRP/omics), J. Deasy, ANYONE] 4. Being considering feasibility of an inventory database [Suggested: Walter Bosch; Liz Hammond, Brenda Young] 5. Identify a good resprospective study which can combine dose/biodata/TRP/template input (ongoing) [ANYONE].