7 ms·

Excerpt: We now know that breast cancer is not one disease. What works for one person might not for another: There is no one “cure.” We are each, in effect, on

Excerpt: We now know that breast cancer is not one disease. What works for one person might not for another: There is no one “cure.” We are each, in effect, one-person clinical trials. Yet the knowledge generated from those trials will die with us because there is no comprehensive database of metastatic breast cancer patients, their characteristics and what treatments did and didn't help them. In the Big Data-era, this void is criminal. Consider what Wall Street does. Even the tiniest companies can see how much stock they sell, compare themselves to cohorts, review history, predict trends. Why can't we create such a database for cancer patients, so we can all learn from patient experiences and make more educated decisions on what treatments will extend and improve lives?

grizmaldi 12y ago
Such work has begun: http://www.flatiron.com http://www.flatiron.com
briantakita 12y ago
Does cancer occur in healthy ecosystems? Maybe big data & reductionism is an incomplete approach... On the flip side, such techniques will make some people a lot of money, so ignore or downvote my concerns...
- robbiep 12y ago
  > Does cancer occur in healthy ecosystems? Honestly, what does that even mean? And if you are trying to suggest that cancer is related to some imbalance in the environment, the answer is, yes, cancer occurs everywhere and anywhere. It is not limited to humans and did not start post-industrial Revolution.
  - 001sky 12y ago
    Trying to extrapolate the origin math of a chaotic system is a fools errand.
- Sanddancer 12y ago
  Yes, cancer occurs in healthy ecosystems. The process of tumorgenesis has a lot of variables that we're still unwinding. There is another cancer out there that is deadlier, and makes a lot of people a lot of money too through questionable means. It goes by names of holistic medicine and "questioning big medicine". It's a gang of the uninformed, led by charlatans and frauds preying on the sick and the dying, spewing their effluent without regard. It metastizes in communities of those looking for some sort of hope beyond hope, infecting these vulnerable communities. You, good sir, are that cancer. You, good sir, with your ignorance lead people to death with your ignorance. I hope, good sir, that you educate yourself, before you cause any more pain, suffering, and death.
  - briantakita2 12y ago
    I'm a programmer who eats healthy & practices yoga. I don't make money from cancer patients. You are demonizing many techniques. Are you saying that there is only one way to medicine, and that is large drug companies & established professional organizations? How do new practices & techniques get off the ground in such an environment? Is it possible to be healthy & treat disease independent of these companies in your opinion? Also, where is the archeological evidence of cancer epidemics in ancient times?
    - sk5t 12y ago
      Well, there are historical records of cancer, but it's a bigger problem now because people are getting old enough often enough to succumb to it, and it is being diagnosed as cancer and not as "dropsy" or who-knows-what in lieu of superficially visible tumors.
    - stephen_g 12y ago
      I think conventional medicine tends to be worth a lot of money because the treatments have been empirically proven to be effective. I'm sure there are valid alternative medical treatments, but it tends to be that when they do turn out to be effective, the actual effective compounds or techniques are found and become conventional medicine, often also becoming far improved and made safer along the way. The problem, of course, is that while valid alternative medicines exist, many aren't valid and are often just practiced to make money out of unsuspecting people...
- yetanother123 12y ago
  Also wanted to let you know: Brian - people around you, that you talk to a lot think you're a flake. Because you are. Please stop reading the fringe websites you do. Please start believing that scientific consensus means that - consensus. Smart people fight every day to move it forward (that's how they get tenure/paid).
falcolas 12y ago
Government regulation of how your personal information is created and stored makes such a database infeasibly difficult to create and maintain. The regulation is good, in that it protects an individual's privacy from those who could harm them with it (for example, the insurance industry, the paparazzi, your employers), but it also harms initiatives which aim only for good. Unfortunately, we have to account for the worst actors when creating and regulating something.
- lbhnact 12y ago
  This partly true, though HIPAA is more of a burden because of people's misunderstanding of it than what it actually mandates. However, I posit that it is a lack of government regulation that has allowed health IT vendors to take no responsibility for supporting standards that enable data sharing across care settings. Every person in ill health deserves better study and care than we currently provide. These problems are indeed well understood by some of us in healthcare, the details of a US 'Interoperability Roadmap' are available at the below link. Please take a moment to see where we are now, where we are headed, and how you might contribute. http://www.healthit.gov/sites/default/files/nationwide-interoperability-roadmap-draft-version-1.0.pdf http://www.healthit.gov/sites/default/files/nationwide-inter...

grizmaldi 12y ago

Such work has begun: http://www.flatiron.com http://www.flatiron.com

briantakita 12y ago

Does cancer occur in healthy ecosystems? Maybe big data & reductionism is an incomplete approach... On the flip side, such techniques will make some people a lot of money, so ignore or downvote my concerns...

robbiep 12y ago
> Does cancer occur in healthy ecosystems? Honestly, what does that even mean? And if you are trying to suggest that cancer is related to some imbalance in the environment, the answer is, yes, cancer occurs everywhere and anywhere. It is not limited to humans and did not start post-industrial Revolution.
- 001sky 12y ago
  Trying to extrapolate the origin math of a chaotic system is a fools errand.
Sanddancer 12y ago
Yes, cancer occurs in healthy ecosystems. The process of tumorgenesis has a lot of variables that we're still unwinding. There is another cancer out there that is deadlier, and makes a lot of people a lot of money too through questionable means. It goes by names of holistic medicine and "questioning big medicine". It's a gang of the uninformed, led by charlatans and frauds preying on the sick and the dying, spewing their effluent without regard. It metastizes in communities of those looking for some sort of hope beyond hope, infecting these vulnerable communities. You, good sir, are that cancer. You, good sir, with your ignorance lead people to death with your ignorance. I hope, good sir, that you educate yourself, before you cause any more pain, suffering, and death.
- briantakita2 12y ago
  I'm a programmer who eats healthy & practices yoga. I don't make money from cancer patients. You are demonizing many techniques. Are you saying that there is only one way to medicine, and that is large drug companies & established professional organizations? How do new practices & techniques get off the ground in such an environment? Is it possible to be healthy & treat disease independent of these companies in your opinion? Also, where is the archeological evidence of cancer epidemics in ancient times?
  - sk5t 12y ago
    Well, there are historical records of cancer, but it's a bigger problem now because people are getting old enough often enough to succumb to it, and it is being diagnosed as cancer and not as "dropsy" or who-knows-what in lieu of superficially visible tumors.
  - stephen_g 12y ago
    I think conventional medicine tends to be worth a lot of money because the treatments have been empirically proven to be effective. I'm sure there are valid alternative medical treatments, but it tends to be that when they do turn out to be effective, the actual effective compounds or techniques are found and become conventional medicine, often also becoming far improved and made safer along the way. The problem, of course, is that while valid alternative medicines exist, many aren't valid and are often just practiced to make money out of unsuspecting people...
yetanother123 12y ago
Also wanted to let you know: Brian - people around you, that you talk to a lot think you're a flake. Because you are. Please stop reading the fringe websites you do. Please start believing that scientific consensus means that - consensus. Smart people fight every day to move it forward (that's how they get tenure/paid).

falcolas 12y ago

Government regulation of how your personal information is created and stored makes such a database infeasibly difficult to create and maintain. The regulation is good, in that it protects an individual's privacy from those who could harm them with it (for example, the insurance industry, the paparazzi, your employers), but it also harms initiatives which aim only for good. Unfortunately, we have to account for the worst actors when creating and regulating something.

lbhnact 12y ago
This partly true, though HIPAA is more of a burden because of people's misunderstanding of it than what it actually mandates. However, I posit that it is a lack of government regulation that has allowed health IT vendors to take no responsibility for supporting standards that enable data sharing across care settings. Every person in ill health deserves better study and care than we currently provide. These problems are indeed well understood by some of us in healthcare, the details of a US 'Interoperability Roadmap' are available at the below link. Please take a moment to see where we are now, where we are headed, and how you might contribute. http://www.healthit.gov/sites/default/files/nationwide-interoperability-roadmap-draft-version-1.0.pdf http://www.healthit.gov/sites/default/files/nationwide-inter...