This guide will take approximately 5 minutes to complete.
The purpose of this guide is to walk through how to find articles to answer questions about the prevalence of a biomarker in a disease population of interest.
Step 0: Login
Navigate to https://med.causaly.com
TIP! In case you’ve forgotten your password, you can recover it here.
Step 1: Explore the direct relationship between a biomarker and an indication of interest
To explore the direct relationship between two Concepts, use the Intelligent Search on the Causaly home page (Figure 1).
Figure 1. The Intelligent Search on the Causaly homepage
Begin your search by adding a keyword that describes your question into the search box and select the Concept of interest from the suggestions below. To explore the relationship between a gene and a disease of interest, add both keywords in the search box and select the most relevant from the suggested search topics (Figure 2).
Example: KRAS gene and Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma (NSCLC) link
Start by typing KRAS and NSCLC in the Search box (Figure 2).
Figure 2. In Intelligent Search, explore the relationship between a biomarker and an indication of interest by typing keywords and selecting the most relevant search topic from the suggestions below.
TIP! As you type, the system suggests relevant Concepts below with the associated amount of evidence on the right. Based on your research objectives, you can select the Concept most relevant to your search.
Browse your results and investigate the association in an Article (default view) or Grid view.
TIP! You also have the option of including ‘Narrower concepts’ and ‘Related Concepts’. If you select these options, Causaly will look for direct associations not only between the biomarker and indication of interest, but also the narrower and related concepts included (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Click on the Grid tab to review the extracted information for the relationship between the KRAS gene and NSCLC, and the narrower concepts included
Step 2: Use additional keywords to refine your search
To find prevalence data for mutations of a specific gene in a disease of interest, use additional keywords in the search box. The proposed search topics will now change depending on the new keyword and you can explore the results by clicking on the search topic of interest.
Example: The frequency of KRAS gene mutations in patients with NSCLC (link) (Figure 4)
Figure 4. Explore the relationship between the gene and the disease of interest by adding keywords in the search box. Refine the search for prevalence data by typing additional keywords.
Results will now include publications that report prevalence data for the biomarker of interest in a specific subpopulation.
TIP! Click on the “Save” button to save your search and create alerts to receive notifications when new data regarding a relationship of interest becomes available (Figure 6).
Figure 6. Click on the “Save” button to save searches.
Step 3: Investigate further the association between a biomarker and the indication of interest
The Epidemiology module can be used to find quantitative data regarding the incidence and prevalence of a condition or epidemiology data of well-studied biomarkers in a specific patient population.
Click on the “Epidemiology” option under the search tab in the Causaly homepage to access the Epidemiology module. (Figure 7).
Figure 7: Select the Epidemiology tab in the Causaly homepage.
In the Concept box at the top of the page, type in the biomarker of interest.
Example: The prevalence of the KRAS gene (link) (Figure 8).
Figure 8. Fill in the search box with the Concept of interest.
Use the Keyword box to refine your search for the subpopulation of interest.
Example: The frequency of KRAS mutations in NSCLC (link) (Figure 9).
Figure 9. Use the keyword box to refine the results of the search.
Results will now include articles reporting frequency data for KRAS mutations in patients with NSCLC (Figure 10).
Figure 10: Results when looking for prevalence data of KRAS gene in NSLS patients
TIP! Hover the “Search Info” next to the keyword box to review all the terms included when narrowing down the search with a specific keyword (Figure 11).
Figure 11. Hover over “Search Info” to review the terms included when typing a specific keyword.