Giving Compass' Take:

• Susan Keown explains the possibilities and problems associated with big data in cancer research. 

• How can funders help researchers gather and effectively use large quantities of data? 

• Learn more about the promise of big data. 

Dr. Soheil Meshinchi got a notification that the data from the first 10 patients on his team’s new genomic study was ready. He thought he’d just open the file on his office computer and take a look.

His machine refused to open it. The file was just too big.

There were 1,013 patients’ data files to go.

That study, published recently in the journal Nature Medicine, is the first-ever comprehensive look at the genomic landscape of acute myeloid leukemia, an aggressive blood cancer, in children and young adults. Eight years after the study’s launch, results of its complex data analyses are packed into dense graphics in the paper and its bulging supplemental files.

They point toward a consequential conclusion: There are critical biological differences in this cancer that vary depending on the age of the patient, as well as numerous subtypes within those age groups — findings that are changing how the disease is treated in younger patients. And it’s just a start: The team is gathering more in-depth data and expects to publish more detailed analyses in the years to come.

We were collecting data as the technology was improving and as our understanding of what the technology could tell us was improving,” the computational biologist said from his office at Fred Hutch. “And so you’re constantly having to sit back and rethink: ‘Wait, what is this data telling me?’” - Dr. Hamid Bolouri

Read the full article about big data in cancer research by Susan Keown from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.