DEVELOP A CD-ROM OF THE SEER DATABASE

SEER IS A LARGE POPULATION-BASED CANCER REGISTRY DATABASE PRODUCED AND MAINTAINED UNDER NCI FUNDING. SEER IS A WELL KNOWN AND VALUABLE RESOURCE FOR EPIDEMIOLOGICAL RESEARCH ON QUESTIONS OF CANCER ETIOLOGY, EFFECTIVENESS OF THERAPY, AND RELATED MATTERS. CD-ROM IS A REVOLUTIONARY COMPUTER DATA STORAGE MEDIUM THAT MAKES IT POSSIBLE FOR PERSONAL COMPUTERS TO INEXPENSIVELY PROCESS LARGE DATABASES (650 MEGABYTES PER PLATTER). THIS GRANT IS ABOUT MAKING A CD-ROM PRODUCT CONTAINING THE SEER DATABASE (AND PERHAPS SOME RELATED DATABASES) FOR WIDESPREAD DISTRIBUTION AND PROCESSING ON IBM COMPATIBLE PERSONAL COMPUTERS THROUGHOUT THE RESEARCH COMMUNITY. THIS PRODUCT (CD-SEER) WILL BE PROTOTYPED IN PHASE I AND COMPLETED IN THE PHASE II SBIR GRANT PERIOD. THE REMARKABLE HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENTS OF THE PAST 5 YEARS HAVE MADE THIS TASK FEASIBLE, INCLUDING: THE DEVELOPMENT OF CD TECHNOLOGY AND APPROPRIATE SOFTWARE TO USE IT, INCLUDING ISG'S SEARCHLITE. USING SEARCHLITE, CD-SEER WILL ENABLE A USER TO SELECT A SUBSET OF RECORDS FROM SEER USING FAMILIAR BOOLEAN COMMANDS AND THEN TO VIEW AND PROCESS THE SELECTED DATA SUBSET BY USING A SPREADSHEET OR OTHER APPROPRIATE ANALYSIS PROGRAMS. THESE CAPABILITIES WILL MAKE CD-SEER PERFORM WITH THE POWER OF A MAINFRAME EPIDEMIOLOGICAL SYSTEM, BUT AT THE COST AND CONVENIENCE OF A PERSONAL COMPUTER.