National Cancer Institute

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National Cancer Institute
NCI
US-NIH-NCI-Logo.svg
National Cancer Institute logo
Agency overview
Formed August 6, 1937
Jurisdiction United States
Headquarters 9609 Medical Center Drive, Bethesda, Maryland
Agency executive Harold Varmis, Director
Parent agency U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Website
Cancer.gov

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of 11 operating divisions that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NCI coordinates the U.S. National Cancer Program and conducts and supports research, training, health information dissemination, and other activities related to the causes, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer; the supportive care of cancer patients and their families; and cancer survivorship. As of April 2015, the current director of the NCI is Dr. Douglas Lowy[1]

The National Cancer Institute has large intramural research programs in Bethesda, Maryland and NCI-Frederick at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland. In addition, the NCI funds cancer researchers around the United States.

History

The United States Congress established the NCI by the National Cancer Institute Act, August 6, 1937, as an independent research institute. Congress then made the NCI an operating division of the National Institutes of Health by the Public Health Service Act, July 1, 1944. Congress amended the Public Health Service Act with the National Cancer Act of 1971 to broaden the scope and responsibilities of the NCI "in order more effectively to carry out the national effort against cancer." Over the years, legislative amendments have maintained the NCI authorities and responsibilities and added new information dissemination mandates as well as a requirement to assess the incorporation of state-of-the-art cancer treatments into clinical practice.

In the spring of 2004 the NCI funded and started the cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG) initiative, a program dedicated to connecting U.S. biomedical cancer researchers using technology known as grid computing.[2] However, after a review of the program from late 2010 into early 2011, the NCI decided to move past the caBIG initiative and towards a new program, the National Cancer Informatics Program (NCIP).[3][4][5]

Technology and products

caBIG Clinical Trials, caLIMS, and caTissue

NOTE 1: With the NIC decision to phase out the caBIG initiative — and with it some of its software programs — the developmental status of the following products is currently in question.

The caBIG Clinical Trials Suite is an open-source NCI-sponsored enterprise clinical trials software system that is compliant with NCI's caBIG initiative. The suite contains a "collection of interoperable modules covering a broad range of key areas in cancer clinical trials management."[6] For information about what the suite can do, please reference the caBIG Clinical Trials Suite 2.3 User's Guide.

caLIMS is an open-source NCI-sponsored laboratory information management system (LIMS) that is compliant with NCI's caBIG initiative.[7]

The caTissue Suite is an open-source NCI-sponsored biorepository tool that allows "users to track the collection, storage, quality assurance, and distribution of biospecimens as well as data related to the participant and study protocol from which biospecimens are collected."[8] For more information about what the suite can do, please reference the caTissue Suite 1.2 Documentation and Training.

NOTE 2: Access to the caLIMS wiki was put behind a login. Per the GitHub page, you'll have to email NCI support for access.

Features

Product: caLIMS
Sample, inventory, and data management
Sample login and management?Y[9]
Sample tracking?Y[10]
Sample and/or result batching?
Task and event scheduling?
Option for manual result entry?
Multiple data viewing methods?
Data and trend analysis?
Data and equipment sharing?
Customizable fields and/or interface?
Query capability?Y[11]
Import data?
Internal file or data linking?
External file or data linking?Y[12]
ELN support or integration?
Export data to MS Excel?
Raw data management?
Data warehouse?
Deadline control?
Production control?
Project and/or task management?Y[9]
Inventory management?Y[9]
Document creation and/or management?Y[9]
Case management?
Workflow management?Y[9]
Specification management?
Customer and supplier management?Y[9]
Billing management?Y[9]
Quality, security, and compliance
Regulatory compliance?
QA / QC functions?
Performance evaluation?
Audit trail?
Chain of custody?
Configurable roles and security?Y[13]
Data normalization?Y[14]
Data validation?
Data encryption?
Version control?
Automatic data backup?
Environmental monitoring?
Reporting, barcoding, and printing
Custom reporting?Y[9]
Report printing?
Label support?
Barcode support?Y[9]
Export to PDF?
Export to MS Word?
Export to HTML and/or XML?
Fax integration?
Email integration?Y[15]
Base functionality
Administrator management?
Modular?Y[9]
Instrument interfacing and management?Y[9]
Mobile device integration?
Alarms and/or alerts?
Work-related time tracking?
Voice recognition system?
External monitoring?
Messaging?
Multilingual?
Network-capable?Y[13]
Web client or portal?Y[13]
Online or integrated help?
Software as a service delivery model?
Usage-based cost?
Industries served
biotechnology, clinical research, life sciences

Pricing

caBIG Clinical Trials Suite, caLIMS, and caTissue Suite are open-source and freely available.

Demonstration videos and other media

Additional information

References

  1. "Douglas Lowy named Acting Director of the National Cancer Institute". National Institutes of Health. 1 April 2015. http://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/douglas-lowy-named-acting-director-national-cancer-institute-0. Retrieved 03 November 2015. 
  2. Buetow, Kenneth (01 April 2008). "Heading for the BIG Time". The Scientist 22 (4): p. 60. http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/26263/title/Heading-for-the-BIG-Time/. 
  3. Komatsoulis, George A. (April 2012). "National Cancer Informatics Program Launch Meeting". National Cancer Institute. Archived from the original on 16 February 2013. http://web.archive.org/web/20130216034021/https://cabig.nci.nih.gov/NCIP-launch-meeting. Retrieved 08 May 2013. 
  4. Varmus, Harold (13 April 2012). "Announcement: New National Cancer Informatics Program (NCIP)". National Cancer Institute. Archived from the original on 16 February 2013. http://web.archive.org/web/20130216024119/https://cabig.nci.nih.gov/ncip_announcement. Retrieved 08 May 2013. 
  5. "Where is caBIG Going?". CDISC. 9 July 2012. http://www.cdisc.org/content6217. Retrieved 08 May 2013. 
  6. "caBIG Clinical Trials Suite". National Cancer Institute. https://wiki.nci.nih.gov/display/Suite/caBIG+Clinical+Trials+Suite. Retrieved 29 September 2012. 
  7. "caLIMS v2 Background". National Cancer Institute. https://wiki.nci.nih.gov/display/caLIMS2/caLIMS+v2+Background. Retrieved 04 February 2012. 
  8. "caTissue Suite". National Cancer Institute. https://wiki.nci.nih.gov/display/caTissue/caTissue+Suite. Retrieved 29 September 2012. 
  9. 9.00 9.01 9.02 9.03 9.04 9.05 9.06 9.07 9.08 9.09 9.10 "caLIMS v2 Wiki Home page". National Cancer Institute. https://wiki.nci.nih.gov/display/caLIMS2/caLIMS+v2+Background. Retrieved 04 February 2012. 
  10. "Managing Specimens v2". National Cancer Institute. https://wiki.nci.nih.gov/display/caLIMS2/Managing+Specimens+v2. Retrieved 04 February 2012. 
  11. "Managing Queries v2". National Cancer Institute. https://wiki.nci.nih.gov/display/caLIMS2/Managing+Queries+v2. Retrieved 04 February 2012. 
  12. "Managing External IDs v2". National Cancer Institute. https://wiki.nci.nih.gov/display/caLIMS2/Managing+External+IDs+v2. Retrieved 04 February 2012. 
  13. 13.0 13.1 13.2 "Introduction v2". National Cancer Institute. https://wiki.nci.nih.gov/display/caLIMS2/1+-+Introduction+v2. Retrieved 04 February 2012. 
  14. "Managing Naming Conventions v2". National Cancer Institute. https://wiki.nci.nih.gov/display/caLIMS2/Managing+Naming+Conventions+v2. Retrieved 04 February 2012. 
  15. "Sending Messages v2". National Cancer Institute. https://wiki.nci.nih.gov/display/caLIMS2/Sending+Messages+v2. Retrieved 04 February 2012. 

Further reading