project-idea

AR-Status Dashboard: Androgen Receptor Pathway Deactivation Tracker for Prostate Cancer

Loss of canonical AR signaling correlates with prostate cancer progression, raising the concern that androgen deprivation therapy may paradoxically promote escape in tumors where AR is already deactivated.

Build a clinical evidence aggregator and visualization dashboard that synthesizes published data on AR pathway activity levels across prostate cancer disease stages — from localized to castration-resistant. Drawing on public repositories (cBioPortal, GEO, SRA), the tool would let clinicians and researchers see, at a glance, what fraction of tumors at each stage already show low canonical AR activity.

The dashboard would flag patient cohort studies where AR deactivation at treatment initiation correlates with worse outcomes under androgen deprivation, helping clinicians identify risk signals. It could include a literature-mining module that continuously scans PubMed for new clinical data on AR activity and treatment response, keeping the dataset current.

A patient-facing summary layer could translate these findings into accessible explanations of why hormone therapy works differently for different tumor profiles, supporting informed treatment discussions between patients and oncologists.

Who Is This For?

Clinical oncologists, prostate cancer researchers, patient advocates, and precision medicine teams at cancer centers.

Skills & Tools Needed

Literature mining and text extraction (PubMed API, NLP)
cBioPortal/GEO data access and harmonization
Clinical data visualization (R Shiny, Dash, or similar)
Medical ontologies and staging terminology (e.g., TNM, Gleason)
Basic web development for the patient-facing layer

Feasibility

medium — Substantial public datasets and literature exist, but harmonizing AR activity measurements across heterogeneous studies requires significant curation effort.

Inspired by: Loss of canonical sex steroid signaling correlates with prostate cancer progression and induces tumor escape in Drosophila

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