Will Data Find a Cure For Cancer?

Over 13 million people are living with cancer in the United States. 

Roughly 1-2 million are diagnosed with cancer each year, according to The National Cancer Institute. An estimated 500,000 people have died, just this year in the U.S.. Chances are, most of you that read this know someone who has or had cancer, if you haven’t yourself. It is a horrendous disease that causes pain and heartbreak for millions.

For this reason, it is a highly-researched disease. Americans pour billions of dollars into cancer research, in hopes that someone, someday, will find a cure. But cancer is a complex disease; each case is different and each person responds to it differently. While we may not have found a cure, there is hope that we can soon make a step in the right direction.

Watch the video below that discusses the complexity of cancer.

Despite the large subject pool, researchers are still unable to learn enough about cancer and cancer patients to develop better treatment plans. Why is this? As of now, 96% of the available data from cancer patients has yet to be analyzed. In America, healthcare learning and information is obtained through clinical trials. But over 95% of patients do not participate in clinical trials.

There is data being collected on the patients that do not participate. However, it is trapped within various silos of the healthcare industry: typically in doctors’ notes and electronic medical records (EMR) systems.

It’s More Than Just Research; Treatments Too

Cancer is a very complex disease. Combine that with complicated, individual patients, and the complexity of the treatment increases. Sometimes doctors do not have enough information to properly develop the most effective treatment plan for individuals.

For example, many cancer drugs are biomarker; meaning they only physiologically impact certain groups of people. If you are a small, community hospital in Montana, how are you supposed to keep up with all of this?

We Don’t Fully Understand the Disease, and We Don’t Fully Understand the Available Treatments, or the Potential Treatments

However, keep in mind that we have yet to analyze the data from roughly 96% of cancer patients. Data provides us with an amazing amount of insight in other areas, so who’s to say this is any different? The possibilities are endless…

So, How Can We Understand?

First, the data needs to be accessed. Because the data is coming from so many different, disparate sources, the data must be consolidated and aggregated before it can be analyzed. Thus far, this is a challenge that cancer research and treatment centers have not overcome (most healthcare organizations have this problem). However, this is something that a data analytics firm is capable of doing.

Once this is achieved, then we can analyze all of the available data. During the analyzation process, it will be important for the data scientists to work closely with researchers and doctors.

Could we transform this currently inaccessible data into better treatments? Could it even result in a cure?

Here is a great video, “Big Data Meets Cancer,” that discusses the subject matter in more detail.