National Cancer Institute - NCI Division of Cancer Treatment and ...

Association of American
Cancer Institutes
http://www.aaci-cancer.org
The Association of American Cancer
Institutes (AACI) established the Cancer
Imaging Initiative to explore how cancer
centers can partner more effectively
with NCI, private industry, and other
cancer research entities to develop new
research and clinical trials opportunities
in imaging.
AACI partnered with ACRIN, a cooperative
group supported by CIP, to cosponsor
a special imaging workshop for cancer
center directors and chairs of radiology
departments. This workshop identified
barriers to productive collaboration by
the two groups and developed recommendations
to promote imaging studies
in cancer research. In response to one of
these recommendations, CIP developed
Imaging Response Assessment Teams
(IRATs), comprising radiologists and imaging
scientists, to participate in the initial
design of therapy-based clinical trials. A
particular focus is to advance imaging as
a means of assessing response to therapy,
particularly by applying imaging endpoints
in clinical trials.
The first IRATs were formed in 2005 at
eight NCI-designated cancer centers and
will be funded for three years. Once they
have participated in their first round of
trials, they will begin to disseminate their
methods and successes with IRATs at
other institutions.
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Foundation for the National
Institutes of Health
http://www.fnih.org/
NCI is working closely with the Foundation
for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH),
which facilitates public-private partnerships
of all sizes and configurations, in
a collaboration to encourage the rapid
development of more advanced medical
imaging software tools. Directed by CIP,
the Imaging Database Resources Initiative
(IDRI) is designed to rapidly create a public
database of lung CT and X-ray images that
can be used by industry to optimize and
evaluate computer-aided diagnostic products
in the clinical management of lung
cancer. This focused demonstration project
expands on NCI’s Lung Imaging Database
Consortium (LIDC) and draws on resources
from the CIP-cosponsored NLST.
IDRI is part of CIP efforts to speed the
development and dissemination of
quantitative informatics tools for imaging
and integration of other patient data for
clinical decision-making. This initiative will
help enable the use of molecular imaging
and other molecular-based methods for
patient-specific diagnosis and assessment
of therapy response.
Eight medical imaging companies are
participating in the two-year initiative:
AGFA HealthCare, Eastman Kodak Company,
Fuji Photo Film Company, General
Electric Company, iCAD, Inc., Philips
Medical Systems, Riverain Medical,
and Siemens Medical Solutions.