Based on the data and matlab products to produce innovative work towards my PhD thesis

HI All, My research includes 20k cancer incidence patients data set(Cancer Registry data) with screening and treatments and I also have a Matlab products: Matlab, Simulink, immage Processing toolbox, Bioinformatics toolbox, Matlab Compiler, Matlab Compiler SDK, Mapping tools, Neural network toolbox, and statistics and machine learning toolbox.

I need help or suggestion what best options I will have to work on my thesis for PhD program.

Ted

[Greg Heath]

First look at previous work. That may give you some idea about what directions are reasonable to pursue.

Nothing more detailed from your advisor?

Greg

Answer 1

[Star Strider]

Ask your data a question no one has asked it before, then design your research to answer the question. Talk to several Oncologists in your university medical school for ideas. Tell them what your data are, then ask them what they would like to have your data tell them.

Cancer therapy is changing rapidly now, with the development of targeted and even individualised chemotherapeutic and radiotherapeutic approaches. Historical data with ‘traditional’ chemotherapy and radiotherapy may not be as valuable or relevant as it once was, except to create a comparison baseline.

[Ted]

Thanks Star for the feed back. I will do as your suggestion.

[Star Strider]

My pleasure.

My background includes both basic science and clinical medicine, so anything that facilitates communication works for the benefit of everyone.

Answer 2

[Vincent Scalfani]

Rule # 1: Search the literature! Talk to your librarian about resources in your field. Learn and read as much as you can. Once you have gained some knowledge of the field, it will be much easier to develop interesting hypotheses and projects. It may also be useful to replicate other researcher's work first to develop your programming skills. Good luck!