Research Resources

DCTD has a variety of resources available for preclinical and clinical anti-cancer drug development, as well as resources pertinent to clinical applications of imaging.

List of DCTD Research Resources

Biomarkers

DCTD provides information on a variety of validated biomarker assays, specimen handling procedures, and reagent sources for clinical pharmacodynamics studies.

Biometric Research

• Online Sample Size Calculation
  • Predictive Biomarkers in Phase II/III Clinical Trials
    Provides calculations for biomarker targeted randomization design and stratified randomized design
  • Optimal Two-Stage Designs for Phase II Clinical Trials
    Calculates optimal design based on input of probabilities
  • Integrated Phase II/III Study
    Calculates simulated or approximate expected time, sample size, and final power for various trials
  • Sample Size Planning for Developing Classifiers
    Calculates an estimate of sample size for developing classifiers using high-dimensional data
  • Design, Monitoring and Analysis of Bayesian Basket Discovery Trials
    Supports sample size planning and interim analysis for basket trials
  • Bayesian Phase II Single Arm Clinical Trials
    Supports simulations for a single arm trial
• Software Download and Databases
  • Accelerated Titration Design Software
    General guidance for proposed phase 1 clinical trial designs
  • BRB-ArrayTools
    Provides visualization and statistical analysis of microarray gene expression, copy number, methylation, and RNA-Seq data
  • BRB-SeqTools
    A pipeline tool with software applications designed to preprocess and analyze Next Generation Sequencing data
  • D3Oncoprint
    Visualizes and dynamically explores annotated genomic mutation files
  • MutSpliceDB
    Documents mutation effect(s) on splicing based on RNA-seq BAM files from sample(s) with splice site mutations
  • NCI Transcriptional Pharmacodynamics Workbench
    A centralized compilation of drug sensitivity and directly measured longitudinal transcriptional response data for the NCI-60 human tumor cell lines
  • OpenGeneMed
    An informatics system to support clinical trial research in precision medicine
  • Optimal Two-Stage Phase II Design Software
    Computes optimal and minimax two-stage designs for phase 2 clinical trials
  • pCR Trial-Level Surrogate Analysis Software
    Provides code, data, documentation, and results for a paper on a trial-level surrogate

Cancer Diagnosis Research

• Diagnostic Research and Development Resources
  Advice and resources for cancer diagnostics researchers
• Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications of Cancer Research
  Information on federal requirements for research
• Technology Development Resources
  Information on NCI support of research leading to discovery of new cancer markers
• Human Specimen Resources
  • Resources to Find Human Biospecimens for Research
    Specimen Resource Locator, Cooperative Human Tissue Network, and NCTN Navigator
  • Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) Project
    Provides the scientific community with biospecimens to understand the relationship between changes in gene expression and disease
  • Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
    SOPs available to the scientific community for various biobanking practices
  • Organizational and Operational Aspects of Specimen Resources
    Information on organizational models of tissue banks
• An Educational Video on Cancer Treatment and Tissue Donation

Clinical Proteogenomics

• NCI’s Antibody Portal
  500+ standardized, renewable antibodies (to cancer-associated targets) and accompanying characterization data rigorously developed and validated by the NCI Antibody Characterization Laboratory
• NCI’s Assay Portal
  Public repository of "fit-for-purpose," multiplexed, quantitative mass spectrometry-based proteomic targeted assays characterized according to rigorous Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC) assay characterization guidelines
• Proteomic Data Commons
  Cancer-related proteomic dataset repository that allows researchers to link with other data sets (e.g., genomic and imaging data) and to submit, collect, analyze, store, and share data throughout the cancer data ecosystem
• Genomic Data Commons — CPTAC Portal
  Harmonized genomic data from CPTAC whole genome sequencing (WGS), whole exomes sequencing (WXS), and RNA sequences with the GRCh38 reference genome
• The Cancer Imaging Archive — CPTAC Portal
  Radiology and pathology imaging data generated by studies in the CPTAC program

Clinical Trials

• NCI Clinical Trials Stewardship Initiative
  Information on NCI’s efforts to advance the public health impact of cancer trials through the implementation of key NIH policies affecting the conduct and management of NCI-funded clinical trials.
• Cancer Trials Support Unit
• Clinical Trials with Industry Collaborators
• NCI Community Oncology Research Program
• The NCI Formulary
• The NCTN Navigator
• The NCTN/NCORP Data Archive
• Resources for Clinical Investigators
• Resources for Industry to Partner with NCI in Clinical Trials
• Validated Assays, Specimen Handling Procedures and Reagent Sources for Clinical Pharmacodynamic Studies

Drug Discovery and Development

• DCTD’s Developmental Therapeutics Program
  Provides services and resources to the international academic and private-sector research communities to facilitate the discovery and development of new cancer therapeutic agents

• NCI ALMANAC
  Helps researchers identify potentially promising combinations of cancer drugs by providing data and analysis tools showing how well pairs of FDA-approved cancer drugs performed in killing tumor cells from the NCI-60 Human Tumor Cell Lines

• NCI Transcriptional Pharmacodynamic Workbench (NCI TPW)
  Provides gene expression data for more than 12,000 genes in NCI-60 Human Tumor Cell Lines treated with 15 different anti-cancer agents, as well as data analysis tools

• ROADMAPS — Responses to Oncology Agents and Dosing in Models to Aid Preclinical Studies
  Provides a consolidated resource for dosing information and response data in an expansive data set that includes more than 3,000 unique combinations of tumor models, drugs, and dosing regimens in mice

• NCI Experimental Therapeutics Program (NExT)
  Provides discovery and development resources for projects focused on therapeutics for the treatment of cancers that are not currently being pursued by the private sector

• Experimental Therapeutics Consultation on Development of Small Molecules, Biologics, and Imaging Products Intended for Cancer Patients
  Provides a focused consultation with NCI staff regarding the critical path considerations for developing novel investigational drugs intended for human use (i.e. small molecule or biologic, therapeutic or imaging drugs) and how to effectively communicate with the FDA

• Biopharmaceutical Development Program — Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research
  Oversees the operation of a pilot multi-product CGMP facility at the Advanced Technology Research Facility in Frederick, MD

Repositories/Assays Available to the Scientific Community

• NCI Patient-Derived Models Repository
  Patient-derived models including patient-derived xenografts and in vivo patient-derived cell cultures annotated with clinical observations and molecular characterizations

• NCI-60 — In Vitro Screening: The Human Tumor Cell Line Assay and
  Molecular Target Characterization Samples
  60 different human tumor cell lines are used to characterize the growth inhibition of investigator-supplied compounds to identify potential novel structures and mechanisms of action. Cell pellets and extracts are available for investigator characterization of molecular targets.

• Synthetic Compounds Repository
  A unique and diverse set of more than 200,000 synthetic compounds and pure natural products

• Natural Products Repository
  More than 100,000 plant samples, marine invertebrates and marine algae, and microbes

  • The NCI Program for Natural Product Discovery (NPNPD) Prefractionated Library
    The largest and most diverse publicly available collection of natural product extracts and fractions for high throughput screening

• Preclinical Repository
  An ordering system for cytokines, monoclonal antibodies, reference standards, antisera, and other biologic reagents

• Tumor/Cell Line Repository
  A catalog of in vitro cell lines, transplantable animal and human tumors and yeast that are available to researchers

• Validated Biomarker Assays
  Validated assays, specimen handling procedures, and reagent sources for clinical pharmacodynamic studies and Training Certification

• Downloadable Data Sets
  Compound sensitivity data for the NCI60 screen and similar screens run on sarcoma cell lines and small cell lung cancer cell lines, plus molecular target characterization data for the NCI-60, sarcoma, and SCLC cell lines

Imaging

• The Cancer Imaging Archive (TCIA)
  A public resource and service that provides the cancer imaging research community with de-identified and curated clinical imaging datasets from large NIH programs, clinical trials, and researcher-initiated studies
• IND Regulatory & Manufacturing Resources
  Documents to aid researchers in implementing and/or filing of Investigational New Drug Applications (IND) for imaging
• Quantitative Imaging Network (QIN)
  A network of researchers that promotes research goals related to the measurement or prediction of tumor responses in clinical trials
• Resources for NCI-sponsored Imaging Trials
  Resources for imaging trial investigators, including protocol templates, and links to cancer clinical trial organizations