Life as a Health Data Scientist

The Problem Brain cancer is the tenth leading cause of death among both men and women. They are also the second most common cancer among children of age 0-14. Most of the time, we don't understand what caused a person's brain tumor but research has shown that factors such as age, family history, exposure to certain chemicals, radiation and certain viral infections may increase the risk of developing brain cancers. Successfully treating brain cancers can be very challenging due to the blood-brain barrier that keeps treatments out or the location of the tumor in the brain may prohibit surgery to avoid further complications. Malignant brain tumors such as Glioblastomas are treated with chemotherapy or radiation which prolong a patient's life only by a few months. Recently, many famous people including Senator John McCain and Vice President Joe Biden's son Beau Biden, who were diagnosed with this disease, and their families have tried to increase awareness and resea

Korean K-MASTER protocol Funded in 2017 for 5 years with $70M by the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Science, Information and Communication Technology, K-MASTER aims to position Korea as a global leader of Precision Medicine based cancer treatment. This and other precision oncology efforts were the center of discussions at the 12th annual meeting of the Korean Society of Medical Oncology in Seoul last week. Through Next Generation Sequencing based tissue panel and liquid biopsy platform for cancer diagnostics, the program will profile the cancer genome of 10,000 patients and match eligible patients to 20 pre-selected clinical trials. Ongoing trials in K-MASTER include Disease-Biomarker-Drug combinations of: CRC-MSI high-Avelumab, Any Solid-PIK3CA-Sirolimus, NSCLC-EGFR-Gifitinib, Any solid-dDDR-Nivolumab, Any solid-MET-Tepotinib, Any solid-High TMB-Nivolumab+Ipilimumab combo, Her2+ Breast-PIK3CA-Trastuzumab and Salivary-Her2-Nanoxel. Clinical Util