Wearable Devices and Biomarkers Project (Healthiomics)

Overview

The purpose of this study is to collect clinical data, biological specimens (e.g., blood, tumor, cerebrospinal fluid, urine sample, etc.), and digital health data from patients with tumors, cancer and/or neurological disorders in order to perform research studies that could advance patient care. By collecting these specimens, the investigators plan to create and maintain a biorepository to make data and specimens available to collaborating investigators performing research to discover predictive biomarkers, patterns of care, and personalized treatments that could directly improve the care of our patients through focused proof-of-concept clinical trials.

For brain tumors in particular, this study will provide an important historical dataset against which to compare the addition of novel agents to standard chemoradiation. Despite advancements in surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, the prognosis of malignant gliomas remains poor. Even worse is the prognosis of patients with metastatic brain tumors. However, it is recognized that a small number of brain tumor patients respond durably to specific modalities and treatment regimens and discovery of clinical, imaging, and genetic biomarkers would significantly advance the care of these patients. The development, validation, and application of prognostic biomarkers for primary and secondary brain tumors that predict patient treatment outcome and guide personalized treatment for each patient are of considerable clinical importance. Such prognostic models will allow more informed, pre-treatment decisions about patient response to specific treatments and judiciously guide stratification of patients for specific treatments and enrollment into clinical trials. Prognostic models will also provide a guide and platform for studying many other types of cancer and neurological disorders. The significance of evaluating the impact of therapy on quality of life and patient-centered outcomes is now widely acknowledged and recognized as one of several measures used to determine clinical benefit. There is increasing evidence that patient reported outcome (PRO) measures are sensitive to changes in disease and treatment characteristics. For example, more recent clinical trials for cancer are now describing the relationship between symptom-based PRO measures and traditional clinical trial endpoints (e.g., overall survival (OS) and progression free survival (PFS)). The relationships between symptoms, signs, and functions are complex, and there is a need to continue to analyze these relationships to determine what is being caused by the treatment and what is being caused by the disease. Distinguishing outcomes of normal aging from disease is also a challenge, therefore comparing results from patients without neurological disorders ("normal controls") across the spectrum will be an important component of the study.