'Help Defeat Cancer' Project Launched on IBM's World Community Grid Expected to Speed Cancer Research

IBM is working with researchers at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) - Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and The Cancer Institute of New Jersey to launch a project that will unleash the power of supercomputer technology in the battle against cancer.

Help Defeat Cancer is the third project to use the enormous computational power offered by World Community Grid, the world's largest humanitarian grid housing a virtual supercomputer.

The Help Defeat Cancer project is expected to help researchers understand the underlying mechanisms of cancer in order to improve treatment and therapy planning for cancer patients.

IBM will use its information technology capabilities to power the Help Defeat Cancer project on World Community Grid for a minimum of three months.

The project will give researchers an opportunity to analyze large numbers of cancer tissue microarrays (TMAs) simultaneously allowing multiple experiments to be conducted in shorter periods of time.

"As a result of the Help Defeat Cancer project, World Community Grid makes it possible to analyze in one day the number of specimens that would take approximately 130 years to complete using a traditional computer," said Dr. David J. Foran, lead researcher and professor of pathology and director of the Center for Biomedical Imaging at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and co-director of the Immunohistochemistry shared resources program of The Cancer Institute of New Jersey.

"Without World Community Grid, TMAs are processed in individual or small batches that are analyzed on standard computers."

Researchers believe the speed and sophistication of World Community Grid could make it possible to detect and track subtle changes in measurable parameters that could facilitate the discovery of prognosis clues, which are not apparent by human inspection or traditional analysis alone.

Researchers have already created a web-based, robotic prototype to automatically image, analyze, archive and share tissue microarrays.

The Help Defeat Cancer project will begin with the analysis of breast cancer TMAs followed by an analysis involving head and neck cancers.

"It is a true testament to the quality of research being conducted at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey to be part of a project that could quite literally change the way cancer research is performed," stated Dr. William N. Hait, director of the Cancer Institute of New Jersey and associated dean of Oncology programs and professor of Medicine and Pharmacology at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

Through World Community Grid anyone can donate idle and unused time from their computer by downloading World Community Grid's free software and registering online.  

200,000 individuals are now volunteering power from 360,000 computers to advance cancer research through World Community Grid.

Computers running Windows, Linux or Mac operating systems can all participate in World Community Grid.

The Lance Armstrong Foundation is a World Community Grid partner. "This technology is especially exciting not only because it offers tremendous potential for breakthroughs in cancer research, but also because the Help Defeat Cancer project provides individuals with an easy way to get involved in the fight," said Mitch Stoller, president and CEO of the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

"World Community Grid is a perfect fit for the Lance Armstrong Foundation and our belief that unity is strength."

"We will support this initiative by installing the software on all Foundation computers, and we encourage everyone with a computer to likewise assist in this critical work. Together, we can make a tremendous difference to people affected by cancer."

"World Community Grid is a true demonstration of 'innovation that matters for the world'," said Stanley S. Litow, president of the IBM International Foundation and vice president of IBM Corporate Community Relations.

"Anyone, anywhere in the world who has a computer can join the battle against cancer."