About the Customer
This collaboration involved a leading global pharmaceutical company and the cBioPortal open-source community, with the goal of advancing tools for cancer research. cBioPortal is widely used across academic institutions, hospitals, and industry to explore large-scale cancer genomics data.
The Challenge
Kaplan-Meier (KM) plots are critical for survival analysis in clinical trials and cancer research. However, the existing KM features in cBioPortal lacked essential elements like hazard ratios, landmark analyses, and number-at-risk tables, which are standard in clinical trial reporting. Researchers often manually manipulated the data to create publication-ready figures, consuming valuable time and introducing potential errors.
How We Solved It
The Hyve extended the Kaplan-Meier survival chart functionality by introducing three powerful new features:
Number-at-Risk Table: This table displays the total number of participants at each time point, providing transparency into study retention and event occurrences.
Hazard Ratios: This function automatically calculates pairwise hazard ratios between groups with 95% confidence intervals, making it easier to interpret relative risks without external tools.
Landmark Analysis: Allows visualization of survival percentages at user-defined time points, helping researchers analyze milestone outcomes efficiently.
These features were implemented collaboratively, leveraging expertise in cancer biology, statistics, and software engineering to meet the needs of the diverse cBioPortal user community that utilizes cBioPortal for clinical reporting.
The Outcome
The enhanced Kaplan-Meier plots are now available in the latest cBioPortal release, providing researchers with:
Standardized, publication-ready visualizations that eliminate manual figure manipulation, reducing potential errors from improper standardization.
Time savings for data scientists supporting clinical trials.
Improved accessibility to advanced survival analysis tools, fostering hypothesis generation and better patient outcomes.
These developments exemplify how open-source collaboration can drive innovation, benefiting the global cancer research community.
Closing Remarks
This project highlights The Hyve’s commitment to advancing research through open-source tools and collaborative partnerships. The new KM plot features not only improve functionality but also promote standardization in survival analysis, streamlining workflows for researchers worldwide.
For a detailed overview of this feature, visit our article on Kaplan-Meier plot enhancements.
If you’re interested in similar feature development projects or other cBioPortal services, feel free to contact us at marketing@thehyve.nl.