Medicover
Hidden cancer cure
Cancer Research UK is asking citizens to analyse data in accordance with the standards developed by pathologists. The website authors write on their website that:
the cure for cancer is "buried" somewhere among the great amount of data in their possession. This means that website user can help accelerate the process of searching for a cure for cancer by helping analyse these data.
As is well known, in the case of cancer, time is a critical factor. Similarly, in the case of scientific research – scientists simply don’t have the time to go through the huge amount of material that requires processing.
The website authors are convinced that one day we will be able to cure cancer, but for this to happen as soon as possible, they decided to involve the online community in the research. Thanks to this, the process of analysing the data held by scientists can be significantly accelerated.
The role of the online community
Cell Slider™ displays slides of tumour fragments. The analyst, through visual assessment, must determine what type of cells they are dealing with.
Cell Slider™ was developed in direct response to suggestions received in the initial phase of the project from the online community that is part of the social movement called citizen science.
The idea for the website was inspired by the work of astronomers on the Citizen Science Alliance website, which gathers a civic community of avid scientists.
In the face of a great amount of data that it could not cope with, NASA decided to publish them on the website for users - members of the online community – to analyse.
For just one project - Galaxy Zoo - users made 60,000,000 classifications, which is the equivalent of employing one NASA analyst for over 110 years!
How to help in the search for a cure for cancer?
On the website: www.clicktocure.net there are real microscopic images of tumour samples. Anyone can analyse them, it does not require a medical background. The analyses are performed directly on the website, so there is no need to install any application on your computer.
Before performing the analysis, users undergo a short tutorial that explains what is expected of them. Next, slides appear on the computer screen, which you need to examine to determine the types of cells and select the appropriate option from the answers given.
To make sure that the number of accidental clicks is kept to a minimum, each image presenting a tumour sample is analysed by several people simultaneously.
Cell Slider™ is a free service. It only takes a few minutes and a few mouse clicks for an Internet user to join this social science project and help researchers tackle huge amounts of data to speed up the process of finding a cure for cancer.
To find out how you can get involved in this project, and then encourage all your friends and family to do the same, visit www.clicktocure.net.
