Cancer research is an important activity throughout the world in which many persons are engaged; it is extremely dynamic and much is accompanied annually. Information support for this research is critical to share results and findings, to avoid duplication of effort, etc. The goal of this project is to provide a comprehensive Cancer Information Resource (CIR) to support worldwide cancer research using inexpensive Personal Computer (PC) and optical disc technologies. In the successful Phase I activity, a fully operational prototype system was developed, which contained the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Directory of On-Going Research in Cancer Epidemiology 1989/90 on a CD- ROM (Compact Disc - Read Only Memory) optical disc, operable on a PC with powerful information retrieval software. In Phase II we will proceed from that prototype to a product ready for commercialization. The CIR product will contain more than 50 times as much volume of information as the prototype, all related to cancer research and relating epidemiology to other research areas (per the instructions of the DBIR application package, we have retained the title of the Phase I work, but the content of the CIR product will be broader in scope than that of the prototype). In addition, the software will be greatly enhanced to provide hypertext linkages among all the databases so that the product will be fully integrated and extremely easy to use. Beta testing in third-world countries will be conducted, and at the end of this Phase II the product will be ready for commercial distribution to cancer researchers throughout the world.
