Cancer Research UK has published a new research data strategy which aims to “build the foundations of a thriving data science community with the support, trust and involvement of patients and the public, and unimpeded by issues of data access, quality [and] linkage.”
“The whole driving force of this strategy is to improve outcomes for cancer patients,” Cancer Research UK state. “Maximising the amount of knowledge the cancer research community can glean from all available data is the very thing that will allow us to learn from the patients that have suffered, and been lost to, cancer. The sheer power of the footprint they have left in the form of research and health data holds incredible potential.”
It goes on to list the challenges associated with using data science in cancer research, including the fact that cancer research data does not meet the FAIR data principles (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable). In addition, the strategy says, “the cancer data science community could benefit from being better connected to a more collaborative community to be better positioned to tackle common challenges collectively, share best practice and drive data culture change.” Other challenges include building and maintaining public trust, the lack of many visible role models and case studies and a need for more experts applying their skills to cancer research.
The strategy lays out stages to achieve its vision, with stage one focusing on laying the foundations and stage two centring around enabling the vision. For stage three, the strategy states that they will “develop exemplar research programmes that demonstrate the value of taking a data-driven approach to cancer research and embody the foundations of the strategy to leave a legacy that improves the data ecosystem.”
Laying the foundations will involve earning and maintaining trust and support; maximising the intellectual value of research data; strengthening the national cancer data science environment; building a collaborative and supportive cancer data science community; translating insights from data into patient benefits; attracting and training data experts; ensuring equality, diversity and inclusion; and improving the sustainability and efficiency of data science.
Enabling the vision, meanwhile, will be achieved through the development of partnerships to leverage shared expertise, tools, data and resources, with international partnerships highlighted as “critical to pooling expertise and resources across borders, particularly for research into rare cancers”. In addition, communications will be embedded that enable a multidisciplinary cancer data science community to understand each other and work together.
When it comes to exemplifying ambition, the strategy shares that Cancer Research UK are developing proposals for exemplar programmes that will “unleash the potential of big data and data science to answer important questions about cancer”, adding that they will focus on “approaches such as prioritising cancers that affect children and young people, tackling cancers of unmet need, driving further progress in early detection and driving therapeutic innovation.”
Bissan Al-Lazikani, Professor of Genomic Medicine and director of Therapeutics Data Science at MD Anderson Cancer Centre, said: “This new research data strategy has the potential to transform the landscape for data science in cancer research for patient benefit, informing better prevention, detection and treatment.”
To read the strategy in full, please click here.
