14.1. The NCI Early Detection Research Network

The National Cancer Institute’s EDRN project has focused on the identification of cancer biomarkers for over a decade. Biomarkers are indicators of early onset of disease, and identifying accurate and precise methods for their detection is one of the EDRN’s primary goals.

As part of the biomarker discovery process, EDRN collects many different types of data, ranging from information about biomarkers themselves (names, aliases, related organs, and so forth), to instrument-produced raw science data files, study protocols, and specimen information. We’ll talk about these types in the next section.