The Cancer Imaging Program Convenes the Co-Clinical Imaging Research Resources Program (CIRP) 2021 Annual Virtual Meeting

The CIRP Network is a trans-NCI initiative designed to:

• Provide the broader cancer community with web-accessible research resources for quantitative imaging of co-clinical trials (investigations in patients and in parallel (or sequentially) in mouse or human-in-mouse models, such as genetically engineered mouse models or patient-derived xenografts)
• Encourage consensus on how quantitative imaging methods are optimized to improve the quality of imaging results for co-clinical therapeutic or prevention trials of adult and pediatric cancer
• Leverage existing NCI resources and programs to ensure best practices, effective outreach, and rapid dissemination

The CIRP Annual Virtual Meeting 2021 (agenda) convened on June 16-17 and brought together stakeholders from academia, industry, scientific communities, federal agencies, and the following seven U24-funded teams:

• Washington University at St. Louis
• Duke University
• MD Anderson Cancer Center
• University of Pennsylvania
• University of Michigan
• Three-site team of Baylor College of Medicine, University of Texas at Austin, and Stanford University
• University of California at San Francisco

Meeting Mission

Review the progress of the CIRP program, identify challenges in the four essential areas of CIRP (animal models, co-clinical trials, quantitative imaging, and informatics), and seek solutions for integration of data, harmonization of protocols, and/or standardization of methodology

Meeting Topics

• CIRP Program Updates
  • Progress reports and 13 poster briefings from the seven CIRP teams and one associate member that the NCI Informatics Technology for Cancer Research program supports
  • Demonstrations of web resource development from two CIRP teams
• CIRP Steering Committee and Three Working Groups Updates
  • Ten talks on specific issues in animal models and co-clinical trials, imaging acquisitions and data processing, informatics, and outreach
  • Discussions focused on cancer issues and unmet needs, metrology and standardization, metadata, and interoperability
• Closed Business Management Session for the CIRP Steering Committee

For more information on CIRP, contact Huiming Zhang, PhD (zhanghui@mail.nih.gov).