Cancer researchers, doctors and survivors gathered Wednesday at hundreds of summits across the country to give guidance to the federal government’s cancer "moonshot.” At the summit in Seattle, hosted by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, “Big Data” emerged as a priority.
The goal of the “moonshot” is to cram 10 years’ worth of advances in cancer research into the next five years. Leading researchers at Fred Hutch said sharing data would enable scientists and doctors to collaborate across different institutions.
But “big data” is also about statistical power. Scientists need more data from clinical trials, genetics and elsewhere to see patterns and correlations.
“Biology is wondrously complex, and the picture is really quite fuzzy," said Matthew Trunnell, chief information officer at Fred Hutch. "In many cases, we need to look at tens or hundreds of thousands of genomes in order to get through that blurriness and see the signal.”
Eric Holland, who heads the Division of Human Biology at Fred Hutch, says there are still logistical, financial and cultural barriers to sharing data. He says the federal government has a role to play in facilitating that kind of collaboration.
“The government helped us get the interstates right -- they cross state lines and make it all the same,” said Holland. “We all benefit from that. We need the government to help us get this right. That’s actually the one thing I can say the ‘moonshot’ could really help with.”
Fred Hutch plans soon to roll out the Hutch Data Commonwealth, which will provide staff and money to help researchers plow their data into a big central repository.
Fred Hutch faculty were joined by researchers and clinicians from institutions it already collaborates with, including Seattle Children’s, UW Medicine and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.
Fred Hutch president Gary Gililand was not there. He was in Washington, D.C. at the flagship summit, alongside Vice President Joe Biden. Biden suggested there the government could pull funding from studies that don’t publicly share their results.
