In the field of cancer research, the abbreviation API is often used to refer to an active pharmaceutical ingredient. While in the world of software development, API is shorthand for something known as an application programming interface.

At the intersection of the application programming interface and cancer research is where you will find our mission:

Cancer Research Journal is an advocate for the development of a comprehensive Cancer API designed to empower organizations, companies, institutions, medical professionals, legislators, citizen scientists, patients and their family members with the ability to more easily access and share emerging knowledge about the fight against cancer.

If you’re still not exactly clear what an application programming interface is, you can think of it simply as a set of tools and instructions that makes whatever it is you’re working on available so that others can find, access and build something else from it – like a mash up for instance. An API that you can access via the Internet is also known as a web service.

Here’s an illustration of one idea of how a Cancer API (we like to call it CANAPI – pronounced like canopy) might work:

There are a number of ways to go about constructing an information-based application programming interface like CANAPI, but here are a couple core principles that Cancer Research Journal believes in:

1) Open — CANAPI should embrace an open source philosophy, both with the software and standards that it’s built upon as well as the licensing of the information that is shared.

2) Easy — Not every entity in the cancer information ecosystem pictured above has access to a large staff of IT professionals. Tools to leverage the power of CANAPI should be easy for even small organizations to acquire, install, maintain and access.

3) Decentralized — CANAPI should seek out ways to take full advantage of crowd sourcing and let the power of the network drive innovation. If an idea emerges, a CANAPI user should be able to immediately convert their creative spark into fuel and see where it leads.

But aren’t there already similar projects like this underway, like CAISIS and caBIG® for instance?

Great question. There is some momentum in the movement to create API’s for Government Data and we look forward to supporting cancer specific efforts in this area like CAISIS and caBIG® in any way we can. But from our understanding of those projects, they appear to be designed primarily for research institutions and bioinformatics professionals. Where something like CANAPI may be able to add value is to provide a wider variety of individuals and small to medium sized organizations involved in the fight against cancer with the ability to transform their websites and Social Networks into powerful new pathways for spreading the word about emerging breakthroughs and best practices.

It’s also important to recognize that an information based API like CANAPI is only as good as the content it contains, and we support organizations like the Alliance for Taxpayer Access that are working to achieve greater access to knowledge created through publicly funded research.

OK then, any examples of API’s that sort of work like you’re talking about?

The way the Twitter Search API works is interesting. There’s a lot to like about the simple yet powerful approach of sending URI based queries with the option to receive results as either JSON or ATOM formatted XML across multiple platforms. Plus this RESTful framework is within the technical grasp of most any end user with a basic understanding of web development, and equally important, anyone can access the information. You don’t need to sign up for or join anything to use it and no API key is needed to access the data.

Imagine the possibilities if every outpost in the fight against cancer shared their knowledge this way and transformed their online presence into a place that provides users with the tools and techniques to locate and share the information they need.

Our focus is finding ways to help make that happen.