Development of a Colon Cancer Extension for the AMANDA Microarray Management Database

The management of information is a key aspect during microarray experiments analysis and results interpretation. The common use of this technique with clinical samples requires an adequate clinical annotation of those samples and the inclusion of that annotation into microarray information management systems. We present a module for clinical annotation of colon cancer samples for microarray experiments. This module has been developed to be integrated with a previously developed microarrays database (AMANDA). This new module stores information related with the clinical annotation of samples and patient information used during the experiments such as patient evolution, chemotherapy or surgical procedures. The module also includes information about the histological analysis of the samples used for gene expression analysis. The integration of this information into the microarray information system facilitates the processes of quality control and assessment of microarray experiments as well as further clinical interpretation of the results.