New software to analyse cancer treatment

Cancer is one o the major diseases leading to deaths of 0.8 million new cases every year. ‘OncoCollect’ is a new software programme developed to track the cancer treatment. To gather and analyze the data of a cancer patient, Ramesh Nimmagadda, director of medical oncology at Apollo Hospitals, has come up with a software programme called ‘OncoCollect.’

“In India, we still use protocols and guidelines of treatment from the West. But as several Indian studies have shown, Indian patients react differently to drug regimens, for instance, they tend to get more side effects and their tolerance for toxicity is lower. That is why collecting and analysing data on cancer treatments and outcomes is crucial, it can help us develop an Indian standard of treatment,” said Dr. Nimmagadda.

Explaining about the software, he said that it can be installed on a desktop or to a hospital’s LAN, enabling doctors to key in details of patients. Drugs used in cancer treatment are part of the software, and doctors can choose the regimen they are using. All other forms of cancer treatment are also covered in the software including surgery and radiotherapy. The toxicity and side effects, survival periods and relapses records are recorded. The doctors can then analyze his own data for patterns and could also contribute to pool of data generated, both within the hospital and across the country.

“For effective use of the software, we have set up the Ramesh Nimmagadda Cancer Foundation. The software will be given free of cost and we will also provide assistance in using it,” said Dr. Nimmagadda.

The idea of software was to gather as much data on as many cancers from as many patients as possible. “Apart from showing us treatment outcomes, it will also show us economic costs both costs borne by the patient, as well as costs and efficacies of certain drugs used. Some studies have already found that lower dosages work as well as higher dosages - this cost effectiveness too, can be studied,” he said.

The development of new software is one of the great achievements that help in data collection.

AW: Lizitha