CRDC Insights

The Cancer Research Data Commons (CRDC) 2024 Fall Symposium marked its 10th anniversary as an essential part of the NCI research data ecosystem. More than 500 registrants heard updates on the CRDC's accomplishments and previews of new initiatives. Recordings and slides from all sessions are now available.

The newest of CRDC’s Data Commons, the Clinical and Translational Data Commons (CTDC), was publicly launched in September. The CTDC was developed to house a wide array of clinical and translational data from NCI-funded clinical trials, correlative studies, and interventional studies. Users can explore and select data of interest through the CTDC’s interactive dashboard, which provides summaries of participant demographics, diagnoses, disease stages, targeted therapies, and more. 

A collaborative effort between a research team at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and ISB Cancer Gateway in the Cloud (ISB-CGC) enhanced the cloud-based data infrastructure needed to conduct a large breast cancer research consortium study, leveraging Google BigQuery data tables and analytical tools. Amrita Basu, PhD, was an integral part of the UCSF/ISB-CGC collaboration and continues to use the tables and tools developed through this work in ongoing clinical trial studies. 

  Four of CRDC’s Data Commons provide updates. From the GDC: new webinars, data dictionary updates, and an updated portal. From the PDC: new types of data available, a new tab for exploration of treatment data, plus a new publication. From the IDC: 25,000 new pathology images added from three large datasets. From the ICDC: a new software release for easier search and analysis.

  The CRDC collaborates with many NIH programs, offering its data, resources, and expertise. In this issue: an update on the MIDI-B Challenge, which focused on automated image de-identification. Also in this issue: an update on the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) and the work to create a Biomedical Data Fabric (BDF) Toolbox that will make it easier to share and integrate data, analytical tools, and technologies.