Minimum Technical Preanalytical, Patient, and Clinical Context Data Elements for Cerebrospinal Fluid Liquid Biopsy: Recommendations for Public Database Submissions
Blood-based liquid biopsy has enabled minimally invasive molecular profiling in patients with solid tumors. For cancers of the CNS, however, the use of peripheral blood for cell-free DNA (cfDNA) detection and sequencing has proved challenging because of scant levels of tumor-derived material shed into systemic circulation. An alternative is to use cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), which contains a greater concentration of tumor-derived cfDNA in patients with brain tumors (BTs). CSF liquid biopsy is a relatively nascent field, with critical unanswered questions regarding preanalytical variables that may affect assay performance. In an effort to identify and standardize key preanalytical variables, the Blood Profiling Atlas in Cancer (BLOODPAC) Consortium launched a BT Working Group in 2022.
June 26, 2025
Recommended Clinical Context and Patient Context Data Elements for Liquid Biopsy Data Submitted to Data Repositories and Data Commons
In 2020, BLOODPAC recommended 11 pre-analytical minimal technical data elements for collection and submission of liquid biopsy data to public databases. This article expands on that work by recommending 22 clinical context and 10 patient context data elements. These elements, essential for liquid biopsy data submitted to repositories like the BLOODPAC Data Commons, cover tumor characteristics, disease progression, and patient demographics, supporting biomarker validation, research, and clinical trials.
April 18, 2025
The Importance of Analytic Superiority in a World of Big Data and AI
Rapid advances in machine learning, deep learning, artificial intelligence (AI), large language models, and generative AI have accelerated efforts to leverage these technologies for military advantage. Analytic superiority is best understood in the context of the analytic capabilities of one’s adversaries, who also collect data, build models, and deploy them to achieve their own objectives and defeat the analytics of their adversaries. U.S. cyberspace superiority, which is foundational to military advantage in the physical domains, now depends on prevailing in analytic competition with adversaries and thus requires adopting a strategy and processes to achieve analytic superiority.
July 30, 2024
The Pandemic Response Commons
A data commons is a software platform for managing, curating, analyzing, and sharing data with a community. The Pandemic Response Commons (PRC) is a data commons designed to provide a data platform for researchers studying an epidemic or pandemic. The PRC was developed using the open source Gen3 data platform and is based upon consortium, data, and platform agreements developed by the not-for-profit Open Commons Consortium. A formal consortium of Chicagoland area organizations was formed to develop and operate the PRC.
April 11, 2024
Prostate cancer patient stratification by molecular signatures in the Veterans Precision Oncology Data Commons
This study analyzed clinical and tumor sequencing data from 45 veterans with advanced prostate cancer in the Veterans Precision Oncology Data Commons (VPODC). Researchers found that the genetic mutation patterns were generally similar to those seen in previous prostate cancer studies but also identified several potentially novel mutations. By using clustering analysis, they discovered two distinct patient subgroups with unique, potentially targetable molecular characteristics. These findings may help improve patient stratification and support more personalized treatment approaches for veterans with prostate cancer.
January 10, 2024
Ten lessons for data sharing with a data commons
A data commons is a cloud-based data platform with a governance structure that allows a community to manage, analyze and share its data. Data commons provide a research community with the ability to manage and analyze large datasets using the elastic scalability provided by cloud computing and to share data securely and compliantly, and, in this way, accelerate the pace of research. Over the past decade, a number of data commons have been developed and we discuss some of the lessons learned from this effort.
March 6, 2023
BLOODPAC: Collaborating to chart a path towards blood-based screening for early cancer detection
BLOODPAC brings together researchers, healthcare organizations, industry partners, regulators, and patient advocates to address challenges in developing blood-based cancer screening tests.The article argues that widespread adoption of blood-based cancer screening will require large-scale collaboration and shared data resources. BLOODPAC's goal is to create standards and infrastructure that help bring reliable early cancer detection tests into clinical practice, ultimately improving cancer outcomes through earlier diagnosis.
January 16, 2023
Racial and ethnic disparities in the observed COVID-19 case fatality rate among the U.S. population
During the initial 12 months of the pandemic, racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 death rates received considerable attention but it has been unclear whether disparities in death rates were due to disparities in case fatality rates (CFRs), incidence rates or both. We examined differences in observed COVID-19 CFRs between U.S. White, Black/African American, and Latinx individuals during this period.
August 5, 2022
The Biomedical Research Hub: a federated platform for patient research data
The objective was to develop and operate a cloud-based federated system for managing, analyzing, and sharing patient data for research purposes, while allowing each resource sharing patient data to operate their component based upon their own governance rules. The federated system is called the Biomedical Research Hub (BRH).
March 15, 2022
BLOODPAC Data Commons for Liquid Biopsy Data
ASCO JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics
The Blood Profiling Atlas in Cancer (BLOODPAC) Data Commons (BPDC) is being developed and is operated by the public-private BLOODPAC Consortium to support the liquid biopsy community. It is an interoperable data commons with the ultimate aim of serving as a recognized source of valid scientific evidence for liquid biopsy assays for industry, academia, and standards and regulatory stakeholders.
April 30, 2021
April 2, 2020
The COVID-19 Testing We Need
The following framework was initially created by the BloodPAC Policy and Reimbursement Working Group to help provide a meaningful understanding of the challenges of rapidly and efficiently increasing COVID-19 testing of the entire US population. In this post, we provide an overview of the three types of COVID-19 testing, and the process required to accelerate the return to normal economic activity as soon, and safely, as possible.
April 2, 2020
We Don’t Need a COVID-19 Test. We Need 3.
The universal questions bearing down on everyone navigating the social distancing measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic is: How long do we do this? When does it end? How does it end? Any date projections are mere guesses. The key to resuming normal economic, social and community activities is widespread testing designed to provide the full spectrum of data and information needed to inform a cohesive, responsible return to work and daily living. Without this full spectrum of understanding, society and U.S. businesses will invariably suffer from an extended, repeated cycle of “one step forward, two steps back” fostered by premature decisions, half-measures or overcorrections.
February 4, 2020
Minimum Technical Data Elements for Liquid Biopsy Data Submitted to Public Databases
Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics
BLOODPAC is a public–private consortium that develops standards and best practices, organizes and coordinates research studies through its members, and operates a data commons to support the liquid biopsy research community. Data from the studies it organizes are contributed to the BLOODPAC Data Commons. BLOODPAC developed recommendations for 11 preanalytical attributes called the Minimum Technical Data Elements (MTDEs) that are recommended for studies that it sponsors and for data contributed to the BLOODPAC Data Commons.
August - October 2019
The Veterans Precision Oncology Data Commons: Transforming VA data into a national resource for research in precision oncology
Science Direct: Seminars in Oncology
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has a strong track record providing high-quality, evidence-based care to cancer patients. In order to accelerate discoveries that will further improve care for Veterans with cancer, the VA has partnered with the Center for Translational Data Science at the University of Chicago and the Open Commons Consortium to establish a data sharing platform, the Veterans Precision Oncology Data Commons (VPODC). The VPODC makes clinical, genomic, and imaging data from the VA available to the research community at large.
February 10, 2017
Collaborating to Compete: Blood Profiling Atlas in Cancer (BLOODPAC) Consortium
Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics
The cancer community understands the value of blood profiling measurements in assessing and monitoring cancer. We describe an effort among academic, government, biotechnology, diagnostic, and pharmaceutical companies called the Blood Profiling Atlas in Cancer (BLOODPAC) Project. BLOODPAC will aggregate, make freely available, and harmonize for further analyses, raw datasets, relevant associated clinical data (e.g., clinical diagnosis, treatment history, and outcomes), and sample preparation and handling protocols to accelerate the development of blood profiling assays.