The project really started in January of this year and what makes it so special is it’s big data but focussed entirely on haematological malignancies. I don’t think there’s anything like it around the globe so this is the first one to focus specifically on haematological malignancies. My role is as an external advisor and I’m able to bring in our experience that we’ve had in the United States with what we call the ORIEN network, the Oncology Research Information Exchange Network. That’s not haematological malignancy specific, it’s really for all cancers, but it’s a similar type of approach.
What can the HARMONY project learn from similar work in the US?
The way they’re funding this from a public-private partnership is key. Obviously you don’t want to do this for five years and stop; this is longitudinal data that makes it much more valuable so you have to have a sustainable model. That’s the first. That public-private partnership allows you to be sustainable. I’m sure you’ll have other investors along the way too, probably on the commercial side. Some of the other things are that everyone who is a constituent in this has to be a stakeholder and get something out of it, that’s the only way that has continued engagement over time. So the patients, obviously, have to get something out of it, they’re the ones that are contributing data. The researchers have to get something out of it as well.
Where will there be exciting developments in the future?
Really the future is you’re able to identify rare events and identify the patterns and the specific clinical impact of that. Right now when you’re looking at genetic data, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Someone asked about metabolomics, metabolism, proteomics, all of that is going to be the future and you’re only limited by technology. When we began this over a decade ago there was no gene sequencing data, it was just gene expression array data and that’s all we had at the time. That has quickly changed and now we have the DNA sequencing data, we have RNA sequencing data, next it will probably be proteomic and metabolomics but I think the technology will drive what the next tools are.
Is the rate of change in technology also increasing?
Absolutely. This began, as I mentioned, in ORIEN and specifically with the M2Gen and Total Cancer Care protocol, it began with just gene expression array. Remember, the human genome wasn’t sequenced until about fifteen years ago so since then sequencing has got much more affordable, easily done, rapid turnaround; the informatics have got better so you can analyse it better, so gene sequencing now, RNA-Seq. Proteomics can be done, it’s very, very expensive; once that’s gone through the same evolution you’ll see that applied more often and the same is probably true for metabolomics in the future.
So an exciting time to be involved?
It definitely is and it’s great to see a focus here with HARMONY specifically in haematological malignancies. These are rare cancers and so you do need lots of data for rare cancers.
