By Madeleine Neal
The University of Iowa Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center has taken a collaborative effort to accelerate cancer research.The center announced on Feb. 9 that it has joined the Oncology Research Information Exchange Network this month. ORIEN is a group of cancer centers that collaborate and partner in data exchange.
Kenneth Nepple, a UI clinical associate professor of urology, said many factors affect patient outcomes.
“[We] try to unite different data [to] move from treating one specific thing to a [more] personalized treatment,” he said.
Nepple said the goal is to move toward individualized and personalized medicine. Because each cancer type has different variations, he said, patients may respond differently to treatment and that requires a developing field of molecular data.
“The overall outcome [of ORIEN] is going to be increasing velocity of scientific discovery,” he said. “[We will] be able to focus on much more detailed information and [have the] ability to create synergy.”
New therapies are continually being developed in the center’s clinical trials.
“[We want to] unify workflow from multiple different centers,” he said. “Every place [is] already doing work.”
Nepple said he expects outcomes to be “much greater” by uniting efforts of numerous stakeholders.
M2Gen, a health informatics solution company, focuses on “accelerating” the development of personalized medicine. The company partners with cancer centers nationwide through ORIEN.
Kim Polacek, a media representative for M2Gen, said patients who come to an ORIEN cancer center adopt “total care.”
ORIEN describes total care as a system for tracking patient data through a patient’s lifetime.
“The whole idea is to accelerate cancer research,” Polacek said.
Laura Jacobus, a clinical and translational research coordinator at the UI Holden Center and the administrative lead for ORIEN, said the partnership has been an informative process.
“We’re very new to the network,” she said. “[We’re in the] initial stages.”
The joint effort, Jacobus said, allows the center to make the best contributions.
“They’re just starting to build some of those relationships with pharmaceutical companies,” she said. “We’re excited as a center to be participating in this with [the] research community.”
