MEDINFO is a database management system developed at MGH primarily to organize and analyze data from clinical investigations. It allows for flexible definition of data items contained in a research study and provides users with the ability to perform their own analyses interactively. MEDINFO has been used by a number of investigators both at MGH and at allied institutions for the past seven years on populations ranging from 100 to 8,000 patients. Most recently, the MGH Oncology Data Research Center, containing over 43,000 records, has been converted to a MEDINFO system. This Paper highlights the oncology data research activities and the MEDINFO system's role as a general-purpose database management system versus a highly specialized or uniquely written system. We compare the advantages and disadvantages in costs, implementation time, ease of usage, flexibility, ease of maintenance, and support.