Too often translational endpoints in clinical trials are sacrificed when core services are stretched. This is why we have decided to create a new digital initiative: the Oxford Translational Data Platform (TDP) to facilitate secondary data use from clinical trials and enable Oxford researchers to extract maximum value from patient samples, perform multi-level correlative analyses and facilitate exploratory research to seed further translational studies.
Andrew Blake who built and successfully validated the platform for the S:CORT clinical trial said of the platform:
The Oxford Translational Data Platform will serve as a catalyst for collaboration between data scientists, clinicians and wet lab researchers to ensure that maximum value for patients is extracted from high-quality data sets
Scientists who want to access the data on the platform can do it through a bespoke cBioportal page after a short training provided by the TDP team, or download the data for more complex analysis. Data can be used to increase sample numbers, as a control cohort, to generate preliminary data or anything else that would advance our understanding of cancer with the help of real-world trial data.
The TDP welcomes data from open or closed clinical trials and studies: single cell and bulk RNASeq expression data, NGS mutations, SNPs, copy number, methylation, proteomics, IHC scores and images, H&E images, MRI, clinical data, and outputs of machine learning algorithms are combined into a single, secure, user-friendly, multi-omic data platform.
Over 800 colorectal patients (S:CORT), 250 oesophageal cancer patients (SCOPE) and 40 breast cancer patients (FRONTIER) are already on the platform, and new trials will be added every few months.