The goal of the proposed joint BIRN-NCI Radiation Oncology project is to construct a system that enables querying and retrieval of data from distributed sources. Candidate data sources are currently hosted at a number of institutions, including Washington University in Saint Louis, Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Duke University, Johns Hopkins University and the British Columbia Cancer Agency.
These available datasets include both anonymized computed tomography images and radiotherapy treatment plans and have been the source of several publications. These data also include associated clinical assessment data such as subject demographics, initial assessment, and follow-up evaluations.
This collaboration has developed a prototype integrating both radiation therapy and clinical data for prostate and head and neck cancers. The Radiation Oncology groups, supported by NCI, also have an interest in image management and movement, user and data security, the creation of metadata catalogs, and the ability to send the data that resulted from a query to end-user tools for processing.
