Robert J. Gillies

Equity Interest - Non-publicly traded entity ( e.g., stock, stock option, or other ownership interest)

Moffitt Imaging Biomarker VAlidation Center

We propose to establish the Moffitt Imaging Biomarker Validation Center (MIBVAC) focused on imaging biomarker validations for early cancer detection and accurate risk assessments by leveraging our team of strong experts, resources, planned imaging biomarker validation studies, and analysis & network collaboration structures. In our previous studies we have demonstrated that measurements from breast images can quantify breast cancer risk. The large cooperative National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) also showed a significant survival improvement for individuals screened by low dose CT compared to those screened with conventional radiography. Additionally, we have recently shown that CT image analysis (radiomics) can improve classification in this data set. However, due to difficulties in obtaining accurate and reproducible measurements and high false-positive rates of current imaging, cancer imaging biomarkers have not been routinely incorporated into clinical risk assessment. If these imaging biomarkers can be accurately tailored at the individual level, their impact will be significantly improved for early cancer detection and intervention. MIBVAC plans to achieve this challenging yet quite achievable goal by rigorously evaluating and validating these imaging biomarkers for rapid translation into clinical and practical applications within the Center as well as with the EDRN partners.