The Cancer Image Europe Data Federation

Cancer Image Europe is a federated infrastructure that allows Data Holders to join the federation at different interoperability levels, or tiers . Each tier comes with specific data preparation requirements and compliance standards.

Datasets categorized according to “Tiers 1 to 3”, vary in their level of compliance with the Cancer Image Europe Data Federation Framework. Different federated concepts apply to the different tiers, which implies different technical requirements. It is important to emphasize that in order to achieve a higher tier, you must meet the requirements of the previous tier, as each higher tier encompasses the requirements of the lower ones.

  • Tier 1: A dataset complies with the metadata model for describing the datasets available to Cancer Image Europe. The datasets’ metadata is registered in the public catalogue. Data must be de-identified.
  • Tier 2: A dataset complies to some extent with the Cancer Image Europe common data model, allowing for federated search. This may be achieved using a component called “Query Mediator”, that transforms the query from Cancer Image Europe’s model to the local model and vice-versa. The search is performed by the Cancer Image Europe federated search system.
  • Tier 3: A dataset fully complies with the Cancer Image Europe common data model and imaging folder structure hierarchy, allowing for federated processing. This may be achieved using a component called “Data Materializer Tool (DMT)”, that makes the data available for federated processing, according to Cancer Image Europe’s model. 

EUCAIM Tier Levels

Cancer Image Europe Data Federation Framework compliance Tiers and key functionality offered at each level

The main dimension of value of the Cancer Image Europe infrastructure is providing access to large, homogenised, standardised, and de-identified cancer imaging datasets together with curated, highly structured clinical data for secondary use. For this reason, while it is understood and accepted that the data made accessible through Cancer Image Europe will in many instances initially only be Tier 1-compliant, the achievement of Tier 3 will be the ultimate end goal for all the data collections contained in the infrastructure.
The upgrading of the tier level also offers the advantage of achieving a higher level of fairness. This serves as a potential incentive for DHs involved in European or publicly funded projects, where alignment with FAIR principles is often a mandatory requirement.

For further information about EUCAIM's key components visit EUCAIM on github.