Reverse the Odds is a colorful puzzle adventure game created by Cancer Research UK to aid Dr. Anne Kiltie and her team of researchers. This game is accessible to many people around the world since it is available for both Android and Apple devices. Reverse the Odds is a fairly simple, leisurely game that someone could pick up and play during a boring train ride or while waiting in line. Although it is quite simple and slowly paced, the point of the game is to look for patterns of specific biomarkers in cancer cells from slides of tumors provided by the researchers. The reason why this was done is because it is better to have millions of eyes looking for these patterns rather than the same few people all the time.

Biomarkers are molecules that indicate how a cell might behave or if there are molecules present and working to further allow the cancer to grow. The slides analyzed in game by all the players will help researchers learn more about cancer behavior such as how aggressive the cancer might be and/or how the cancer will respond to different treatments.

The biomarker the researchers are looking for in this game is a protein called MRE11. This protein is present in all the cells in a tumor, but some cells have more of this protein than other cells. The reason why this molecule is so important is because it is used to detect damage to the DNA that could be caused by radiotherapy. Therefore, being able to gauge how much MRE11 is in the cell will help doctors and researchers decide if it is safe to choose radiotherapy for the patient. So for researchers and doctors it is important to be able to find and recognize these molecules in order to make correct treatment decisions for patients with bladder cancer and other types of cancers, radiotherapy or surgery.

The game starts off with a girl who discovered the “Odds” as she was becoming ill. The Odds were sickly and white and she realized that the best way to help them is to give them potions that would reverse their sickly state and help restore their world (hence ‘reversing the odds’).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The game has three main screens. The first one is the map of the Odds’ World where there are different cubes. If you click on a cube you will be taken to the second screen where you analyze tumor slides. If you get the same guesses as the majority of other people in the world who have played the game you receive a potion and in the screen after that you play a puzzle game where you try to get a certain amount of Odds reverted back to their original form while trying to collect gems, etc. If you succeed you reversed the Odds in one cube area.

The game begins with the map of the Odds’ home world where you select the first flashing block and pour a potion on it to give it life again. From there begin analyzing tumor slides for the protein MRE11 in order to get more potions to reverse the Odds’ condition in a puzzle game and to finally get more blocks back to normal (not dull and plain, but filled with life instead). The photos below show how progress in analyzing the slides and winning the puzzles changes how colorful the world of the Odds becomes:

The further you get the more vibrant and colorful the world gets:

 

The game constantly reminds you of what to look for in each slide to identify MRE11:

 

Below are images of the puzzle game that follows the analysis of the slides:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The point of this game is to help researchers find and analyze tumor slides using human’s ability to recognize patterns in order to potentially help future cancer patients better choose their treatment. Despite this being a very serious subject and intended to help with cancer research, the game is quite fun and very addictive. All of you should give it a try!