The AIDS and Cancer Specimen Resource (ACSR), supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has unveiled plans to employ Proscia’s software in their quest to explore cancer in individuals living with HIV (PLWH), significantly reducing the turnaround time for pathology data from days to mere hours.
This innovative move aims to expedite the development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for HIV-related cancers. The ACSR’s primary objective involves the procurement, storage, and equitable distribution of biospecimens, encompassing tissue-based pathology data and corresponding clinical information from PLWH, for the scientific community’s benefit.
Dr. Paige Bracci, director of the ACSR’s Informatics program and a professor at UCSF specializing in epidemiology and biostatistics, emphasized the role of Proscia’s Concentriq for Research software in augmenting the fight against cancer in PLWH. The platform facilitates the near real-time exchange of high-resolution images, surpassing traditional glass slides, thereby transcending geographical barriers and fostering global collaboration among researchers. This accessibility promises to spur new breakthroughs by enhancing data availability.
Moreover, the software endeavours to bolster the conservation and sustainability of scarce tissue specimens while offering robust annotation and analysis tools for a broader spectrum of researchers. Bracci lauded the software’s capability in accelerating access to real-world data for researchers, thereby significantly benefiting both the scientific community and the patients impacted by the ACSR’s work.
Proscia’s CEO, David West, echoed these sentiments, emphasizing the software’s meaningful enhancement of critical data accessibility. Notably, the ACSR has already witnessed a dramatic reduction in the time required to furnish investigators with pathology data, significantly decreasing the turnover time from days to mere hours.
In an additional announcement, the ACSR revealed plans to introduce a rare melanoma tissue repository on Concentriq for Research, expected to feature a tissue microarray of tumour tissues by early 2024, further expanding the repository’s offerings for researchers.