In 2014, there is projected to be 18,860 new cases of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and 10,460 deaths from AML. There is urgency in finding better treatments for this type of leukemia, as only about a quarter of the patients diagnosed with AML survive beyond 5 years. The goal of the DREAM 9 Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) Outcome Prediction Challenge is to harness the power of crowd-sourcing to develop the best predictive models of clinical outcome in AML.

Participants are given data on AML patients including 40 clinical correlates and the expression level of 231 proteins and phosphoproteins probed by reverse phase protein array analysis. This unique, rich AML dataset provided by M.D. Anderson Cancer Center provides information that will enable researchers for the first time to link protein signaling with mutation status and cytogenetic categories in patient samples – offering DREAM Challenge participants the potential to surpass existing methods in identifying drug targets and tailoring therapies for cancer patient subpopulations. Uncovering these markers will open the door for clinicians, pharmaceutical researchers and basic researchers to develop new diagnostic and treatment strategies for leukemia.