World’s most comprehensive registry of pancreatic cancer information to assist patients and researchers worldwide
The Pancreatic Cancer Collaborative Registry (PCCR), created by Simon Sherman, Ph.D., professor in the Eppley Institute at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, has been awarded a five-year, nearly $1.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to enhance a computing platform for research in pancreatic cancer.
The PCCR is a Web-based software registry designed to gather, validate and share pancreatic cancer-related data among cancer centers around the world.
The registry is one of the largest, most comprehensive data sources on pancreatic cancer patients in the world.
Data including demographic, lifestyle, quality of life, diet, physical activity, family and medical history, as well as treatment and surgery information has been collected on more than 2,400 patients with pancreatic cancer.
The PCCR is used at:
• Creighton University;
• NorthShore University HealthSystem;
• University of Alabama at Birmingham;
• University of Pittsburgh;
• University of Michigan;
• Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center;
• University of Genoa, Italy; and
• UNMC.
The grant will enable the PCCR system to be upgraded, repaired and operational with other related computer systems and ensure the PCCR is compliant with the emerging requirements for data collection, access, mining, management and sharing.
The grant also will let Dr. Sherman’s team enhance the computing platform’s ability to develop novel hypotheses and studies to better identify pancreatic cancer risk factors and predictors of survival, and determine best practices for pancreatic cancer therapies.
As the state’s only academic health science center, UNMC is on the leading edge of health care. Breakthroughs are possible because hard-working researchers, educators and clinicians are resolved to work together to fuel discovery. UNMC’s extramural research support now exceeds $100 million, resulting in the creation of 3,600 jobs in Nebraska. UNMC’s academic excellence is shown through its award-winning programs, and its educational programs are responsible for training more health professionals practicing in Nebraska than any other institution. Through its commitment to education, research, patient care and outreach, UNMC and its hospital partner, The Nebraska Medical Center, have established themselves as one of the country’s leading health care centers. UNMC’s physician practice group, UNMC Physicians, includes 550 physicians in 50 specialties and subspecialties who practice primarily in The Nebraska Medical Center. For more information, go to UNMC’s Web site at www.unmc.edu.