Glossary

Adopter: An NCI-designated Cancer Center selected and funded by the NCI Center for Bioinformatics (NCICB) to undertake formal testing, validation, and application of products or solutions developed by caBIG Workspace Developers.

Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG): A voluntary network or grid connecting individuals and institutions to enable the sharing of data and tools, creating a World Wide Web of cancer research. The goal of this project is to speed the delivery of innovative approaches for the prevention and treatment of cancer. However, the infrastructure and tools created by caBIG also have broad utility outside the cancer community. caBIG is being developed under the leadership of NCICB. Nearly 500 people from approximately 50 NCI-designated Cancer Centers and other organizations are working collaboratively on over 70 projects in a three-year pilot project. For more information on caBIG, visit http://cabig.nci.nih.gov.

caBIG Request for Proposals (RFP): This RFP will fund adopters and developers of new and existing projects for the caBIG program. Proposals in response to this RFP are due by March 17, 2005 . Proposals are not required for existing work that will not change in the following year of the program. Only new projects and/or expanded participation in additional Workspaces/Working Groups require a response to this RFP.

Common Data Elements (CDEs): CDEs are a product of standardization of meta-data. Such standardization ensures that the same meaning of words is used and that data model and application components are reusable. In addition, it eases the integration of systems. In the case of caBIG, CDEs are developed by various NCI-sponsored organizations, then centrally stored and managed at NCICB in the cancer Data Standards Repository (caDSR).

caTISSUE: A modular, open-source specimen inventory and tracking system that will encompass a core database module for those centers in need of new solutions, as well as application programming interfaces (APIs), software development toolkits (SDKs), and additional annotation modules for those centers with legacy systems that wish to link into the virtual tissue repositories and query across cancer centers. The caBIG Tissue Banks and Pathology Tools Workspace (TBPTW) is responsible for the release of caTISSUE,

caTISSUE Annotations Module: A data mapping tool that will allow centers with legacy biospecimen informatics systems to link into the virtual tissue repositories and query across cancer centers. In essence, this module will provide (1) a common representation of the core set of clinical annotations usable to all tissue banks within a medical center; (2) a framework that ties disparate tissue collections in a medical center together in a common view of tissue resources; and (3) a framework that ties the tissue collections of multiple medical centers together to create an externalized, nation view of tissue resources.

cancer Data Standards Repository (caDSR): The cancer Data Standards Repository (caDSR) is the standards repository that hosts CDEs developed by various NCI-sponsored organizations. caDSR components are instrumental in the collection of meta data associated with clinical trials. caDSR tools facilitate the search and retrieval of CDEs and it is the single, authoritative source of common data.

Developer: An NCI-designated Cancer Center selected and funded by NCICB to participate in a specific caBIG Workspace to undertake software or solution development activities.

Inter-SPORE Prostate Biomarker Study (IPBS): A study which seeks to rigorously evaluate a number of promising candidate biomarkers for prognosis after definitive therapy. The secondary objective of the IPBS is to use it as a pilot study to test infrastructure, procedures, and resources that will be necessary to establish the NBN. These objectives will be realized through (1) a multi-institutional Inter-Prostate SPORE prospective validation study of five prognostic and predictive biomarkers; (2) limited, focused retrospective studies of three biomarkers; (3) the establishment of a resource of well-characterized tissue, serum and plasma samples linked to clinical and epidemiological data for future biomarker discovery and validation; and (4) the evaluation of the performance of the five elements of the IPBS as pilot tests of the critical elements of the NBN (i.e., standardized sample handling and processing protocols, standardized sample annotation and clinical annotation protocols, standardized specimen storage and disbursal protocols, governance and prioritization of access to specimens in the biospecimen resource, and bioinformatics infrastructure).

Prostate SPORE Biospecimen Coordination System RFP: An RFP to support the development of a design plan and pilot project to establish a common biospecimen coordination system and informatics infrastructure for multiple NCI SPOREs in prostate cancer research. This system will facilitate biospecimen and data sharing among scientific investigators located at different institutions by supporting the use of standardized approaches for collecting, processing, storing, annotating and distributing high-quality biospecimens. Initially, this system will support a proposed Prostate SPORE biomarker validation study, but biospecimens and data collected for this system will ultimately be available to qualified non-SPORE researchers to generate accurate, comparable, and reproducible genomic, proteomic, and other types of data.

Prostate SPORE National Biospecimen Network (NBN) Pilot: A study designed to pilot key aspects of the NBN concept as described in the NBN Blueprint. The NBN concept calls for a national, “best practices”-based tissue resource to manage the standardized collection, processing, storage and distribution of high-quality biospecimens and linked data to support and reduce variability in translational research. The Prostate SPORE NBN pilot will support the development of a common biospecimen coordination system and informatics infrastructure to support collaborative projects related to prostate cancer research currently underway at participating SPOREs across the nation.

Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPOREs): B road, multidisciplinary, clinical and translational research programs funded by the NCI that focus on solid tumor cancers of high incidence (e.g., breast, prostate, ovarian, etc.). With respect to the Prostate SPORE program, it is expected that it will yield new scientific approaches in early detection, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of human prostate cancer. An expanded network of prostate SPOREs will also bring about Inter-SPORE scientific studies that will conduct innovative pilot and early phase clinical interventions. Furthermore, the Prostate SPORE program will be piloting key aspects of the National Biospecimen Network (NBN) concept.

Tissue Banks and Pathology Tools Workspace (TBPTW) : As one of three caBIG pilot domain workspaces, the goal of the TBPTW is to develop a set of tools to inventory, track, mine, and visualize tissue samples and related information from a geographically dispersed repository. This Workspace provides an opportunity to bind Cancer Center systems together into a unified resource through a shared informatics infrastructure. Cancer Centers with experience in successfully developing tools in this domain are acting as developers, while other Centers are included as testing and validation sites. Cancer Centers which have expressed an interest in sharing information regarding specimen repositories and data sets are participating as early test sites, providing an opportunity to demonstrate how the tools perform in actual practice.