CardiffCAT v1.4
Research type
Research Database
IRAS ID
262568
Contact name
Emiliano Spezi
Contact email
Research summary
Cardiff Computer Aided Theragnostics (CardiffCAT)
REC name
Wales REC 1
REC reference
19/WA/0119
Date of REC Opinion
11 Jun 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion
Data collection arrangements
CardiffCAT is a new database that collects de-identified information about the disease and outcome of treatment that patients receive. All of these data will be anonymous, meaning that no identifiable information can be seen, therefore it stays confidential. This information will be used to help doctors better predict the outcomes of treatments for cancer.
The information that will be collected will include the patient’s age, what type of cancer they had and what type of treatment they had. Information of the length of survival or any complications of treatment will also be recorded so that doctors can learn from what has happened in the past to help others in the future.
The information will only be collected by members of the research team with special access to the computer systems in the hospital. When the material is collected, all the identifiable information is removed so that it becomes anonymised. This information is then kept on a highly secure CardiffCAT database which is kept in the NHS computers.
Research programme
This database is designed to help patients with cancer. Doctors have tried to improve their understanding of the way that cancer behaves by using computer models, but the amount of information that is available for use in one hospital is often too small. To help collect more information, the CardiffCAT database will use routinely collected data from Velindre in a new and secure way. The CardiffCAT system allows doctors to find new ways to predict how a tumour will behave and then test their results with other centres from around the world. Doctors can combine different information with the appearance of the tumour on the scans that patients have before, during and after their treatment. The great advantage of this system is that the information never leaves the hospital, only the results of the research that is done. This means that no identifiable information about each patient can be seen. This means that doctors can quickly learn about how tumours behave, by using large amounts of clinical information.
Research database title
Cardiff Computer Aided Theragnostics (CardiffCAT)