ROCCA Platform
Lead Researchers: Dr. Aline Talhouk, Dr. Kylie Gorringe, Dr. David Gershensonn
Rare Ovarian Cancer Collaborative Analytics (ROCCA) Platform
Rare ovarian cancers account for 15–20% of ovarian cancer cases. Because these cancers are so uncommon, no single institution can assemble a group of patients large enough to answer even basic questions about how they behave or how best to treat them. Data that could answer those questions exist, but they are simply scattered across institutions, in different formats, behind different rules.
ROCCA takes a different approach to bringing those data together. Rather than asking institutions to send their data to a central location, we send the analysis to the data. Each
participating site keeps its own data, runs a shared analysis script locally, and returns only de-identified summary results. Those summaries are then combined across the network to produce
findings no site could have produced alone. Sites keep full control and ownership of their data throughout.
The platform is guided by an international Steering Committee, supported by subcommittees of Governance and Scientific Committee, Data Harmonization Committee, and Disease-specific Committee(s). Our first two projects focus on mucinous ovarian carcinoma and low-grade serous ovarian cancer, and our ROCCA Data Gallery makes it possible for researchers to find out who holds the data they need.