CRUK thank citizen scientists & call for more analysis to help beat cancer sooner
All 4 Games announced today that Reverse The Odds, a cancer cell analysis game commissioned by Channel 4 for the joint Stand Up To Cancer campaign with Cancer Research UK (CRUK), has had almost 4.5 million slides analysed by the public to date.
Inspired by the tremendous effort made by citizen scientists the world over; CRUK hope to reach their new target of 5 million analysed slides by the end of March 2016. In order to reach their new goal, they’re calling on the power of the public on World Cancer Day to help beat cancer sooner.
“Reverse The Odds is helping to expand an important cancer study that could shed light on how to treat certain types of bladder cancers more effectively. Thanks to the game, anyone can take an active role in fighting cancer. And with a target of 5 million images to analyse, I’d encourage as many people as possible to pick up their mobiles and do their bit for World Cancer Day by helping to bring kinder treatments to clinics, sooner.” -Dr Anne Kiltie, CRUK/MRC Oxford Institute for Raidiation Oncology at the University of Oxford, and leading researcher for Reverse The Odds.
The Emmy award-winning mobile title, which launched in October 2014, was developed in collaboration with Maverick Television’s Multiplatform team, Glasgow based developers Chunk Digital and CRUK. The game allows players to analyse real images of cancer cells, contributing to vital research being carried out by multiple researchers and scientists across the CRUK. Players directly help to speed up this normally time-consuming process by simply playing the game. Data is then fed back to those working to find new and kinder ways to fight the disease.
“We’re absolutely thrilled to have reached this amazing new milestone in Reverse The Odds and can’t thank those enough who’ve contributed with their analysis so far” said Colin Macdonald, Channel 4’s Games Commissioner and Head of All 4 Games “Our new goal is to help CRUK reach the 5 million mark by the end of March, and with the help of our citizen scientists, we believe this can be achieved”
The game is available to download from the App Store, the Google Play Store on the Amazon Appstore for free now.
About The Game
Reverse The Odds is a fun and unique puzzle adventure game where the further you progress the more you are helping to beat cancer sooner. And it’s all free!
Play at your own pace, whether you just have a few minutes waiting for the bus, or hours to kill on the train, you can build a wonderful Odd world and help save lives by improving cancer treatments sooner.
– Over 350 levels.
– Meet the Odds. A collection of unique colourful little characters who need your help to return their world to life.
– Revitalise a desolate wasteland into an amazing wonderland.
– Easy to learn with increasing challenge and difficulty.
– Directly help Cancer Research UK scientists to beat cancer sooner.
– Combine your efforts with a worldwide community of players.
By examining the patterns within cancer cell slides and identifying aspects such as the number of cells or the colour of cells, you can move up game levels and achieve rewards… Don’t worry about getting your analysis wrong – the same cell slide data will be studied by many other users to ensure accuracy and no single person’s diagnosis or treatment is affected by your actions – your analysis underpins research for future treatments.