WORKSHOP COMPUTER APPLICATIONS FOR EARLY DETECTION AND STAGING OF CANCER sponsered jointly by THE NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE and THE AMERICAN JOINT COMMITTEE ON CANCER July 28-30, 1993 Lister Hill Auditorium National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health Bethesda, Maryland Workshop Co-Chairmen: Sudhir Srivastava, Ph.D. Donald Henson, M.D. ANNOUNCEMENT The Workshop is sponsered by the National Cancer Institute Division of Cancer Prevention and Control. The goals of the Workshop are to review new technology for computer-assisted detection and staging of cancer, and to determine whether patient outome can be predicted with greater certainty. For registration information, please contact: Dr. Sudhir Srivastava, EPN-305 National Cancer Institute National Institutes of Health Bethesda, MD 20892 Telephone: (301) 496-8544 FAX: (301) 496-8667 There is no registration fee for the workshop. Special rates are available at the Holiday Inn in Bethesda, MD at $98.00 per night, which includes breakfast and transportation to and from Lister Hill. The hotel telephone number is (301) 652-2000; please refer to group 3608. Participants are requested to make their own reservations. SCOPE The growing use of computers by biologists, physicians, epidemiologists and investigators has been phenomenal. Inexpensive yet powerful microcomputers, coupled with sophisticated, user-friendly, commercially available software have largely contributed to this growth. Hospitals, clinical laboratories, and health care providers have increasingly taken advantage of computer technology for their database management, information processing, and decision-making needs. However, computer applications for decision-making in cancer patient management, in automation and interpretation of laboratory tests for early detection and diagnosis of cancer, and for prediction of survival based on multiple indicators are relatively new. The need for such applications has long been felt by medical communities. Yet few decision-aids have been developed and applied in early detection, diagnosis, staging, and laboratory testing. Diagnosic procedures include and evaluation of the affected tissues, assessment of the extent of disease both grossly and microscopically, and in some cases, application to special tests. The current practice of staging and classification of cancer patients is based on the anatomic extent of disease, which does not incorporate other prognostic indicators. In the present era of molecular pathology, pathologist may utilize biomarkers for diagnosis and for estimating outcome. However as the number of prognostic indicators increases, the decision-making process becomes more complex. New computer technology can therefore, help pathologists, surgeons, and oncologists datermine patient outcome with greater certainty and apply treatment with greater individuality. Also, the computer is increasingly used in digital image analysis for the measurement, classification, and determination of DNA content of tumor cells and for the diagnosis of cellular atypia and precancerous lesions. These have significant implications for treatment, for example, in differentiating those patients who will benefit the most from those who will suffer from cancer recurrence. The Workshop will review new developments in computer programs, methodology, and technology that can assist physicians in early detection, estimating prognosis, and tracking the results of screening. This Workshop should help establish a dialogue among the various federal, academic and commercial groups involved in artificial intelligence for cancer detection, staging, and prognosis.