US National Cancer Institute signs up to Thomson Reuters'BIOMARKERcenter

12 September 2008

The US National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will use Thomson Reuters' BIOMARKERcenter in its cancer drug discovery programme.

BIOMARKERcenter is a comprehensive resource for pharmaceutical, biotechnology, diagnostic, and research organizations with a framework for assessing and tracking a potential biomarker for use at any stage of research or development.

The National Cancer Institute's Developmental Therapeutics program and the associated Biomarker Program will integrate BIOMARKERcenter into its continuing efforts to investigate novel chemical and biological agents for their potential to improve cancer therapeutics.

"The NCI's Developmental Therapeutics Program (DTP) and its clinical counterpart, the Cancer Treatment Evaluation Program (CTEP) have been using Integrity and it's predecessor, Ensemble, for many years as sources of current and earlier information on agents at all phases of discovery and clinical trials related to cancer," said Dave Newman, Chief, Natural Products Branch DCTD/DTP, NCI. "The availability of BIOMARKERcenter and its integration with Integrity will now permit easier integration of animal and human biomarker information at all stages of the NCI's drug discovery and development programs within the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis, the parent organization of DTP and CTEP."

Using a unique lifecycle approach to indicate the stage of a given biomarker, BIOMARKERcenter covers individual biomarker usage as identified in literature, patents, conferences, clinical trial information, and other sources for all major therapeutic areas. For each therapy area, it includes not only biomarkers with established clinical usage, but also emerging uses for the biomarker. Each record is manually curated and expertly indexed to allow searching by fields such as name, type, biological process, indication, population, role, measurement technique, substrate, lifecycle stage, and development status of diagnostic kits. Each record is further enriched with links to all supporting source documents, throughout the history of the biomarker.

"The Scientific business of Thomson Reuters was the first to deliver a truly structured approach to a previously fragmented field," said Dr Josep Prous, Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, Pharmaceutical and Chemical Markets, Thomson Reuters. "We feel very proud to work with the National Cancer Institute, a true leader in the field of cancer research."

The National Cancer Institute was founded in 1937 with a mandate to conduct and foster cancer research; review and approve grant-in-aid applications to support promising research projects on the causes, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer; and provide training and instruction in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Since its creation, the National Cancer Institute has evolved into one of the world's pre-eminent cancer research organizations.

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