The Oncology Explorer Proposal

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) gradually inhibits the kidney's filtration process, causing an accumulation of fluid and waste in the body. Previous studies have postulated the association of CKD with kidney and genitourinary cancers and found that CKD is a risk factor for mortality in cancer patients (1). Studies have also found that exposure to heavy metals (such as cadmium, lead, and arsenic) can result in CKD and, concurrently, cancer (2). This project implements bioinformatics and statistical analyses to discover the correlative relationship between cancer, CKD, and heavy metals exposure in the 2017-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). We also implement artificial intelligence (namely, ChatGPT) as a tool in computational analysis and programming. Our dual hypotheses are that a) ChatGPT will enable rapid analysis of the NHANES dataset in conjunction with Python programming and machine learning and b) chronic kidney disease and heavy metals exposure will be correlated with a higher cancer incidence in the 2017-2018 NHANES Dataset. Through isolation of the biological features present in the 2017-2018 NHANES datasets and utilization of the programming language Python, we created visuals displaying the correlative relationship between cancer, CKD (specifically, the variables most nearly associated with kidney dysfunction, as the NHANES datasets do not explicitly stipulate whether respondents were diagnosed with CKD), and heavy metals exposure. We intend to uncover correlations between biological markers of kidney malfunction, heavy metal burdens, and cancer incidence and reveal other relationships of interest.

The importance of this project lies in its numerous clinical applications.

References: 

1. Guo, Kanglin, et al. “Association between Chronic Kidney Disease and Cancer Including the Mortality of Cancer Patients: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2014.” American Journal of Translational Research, vol. 14, no. 4, 2022, pp. 2356–66.  
2. Jalili, Cyrus et al. “Associations between exposure to heavy metals and the risk of chronic kidney disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.” Critical reviews in toxicology vol. 51,2 (2021): 165-182. doi:10.1080/10408444.2021.1891196