Sanford to implement new data platform for cancer treatment guidance

By Lisa Gibson

SIOUX FALLS — Starting this spring, Sanford Health oncologists will have access to CancerLinQ, a national nonprofit database used to gather and analyze information from cancer patients. The data is stripped of identifying details and can be used to uncover patterns, determine treatments and help doctors ensure their approach aligns with best practices in the industry.

“Certainly CancerLinQ provides standard of care and quality guidance for treatments — that, however, is just one part of the benefit,” says Sharon Hunt, vice president of cancer services at Sanford Health. “The purpose is really for a treating physician to be able to query a much larger pool of information as he or she searches for personalized approaches for each patient that other physicians have taken with similarly situated patients. Not only can the physician discover options and unique approaches, but they can also assess those approaches with outcome data.”

Many of the most promising therapies for cancer are new, without published data on efficacy, ability to tolerate treatment or side effects, Hunt says. “The CancerLinQ database will enable our physicians to access outcome data from hundreds or thousands of patients similar to the one sitting beside them, and uncover treatment information to provide guidance on the best treatments to fight their own patient’s particular cancer.”

Sanford is one of 50 health care organizations to join the program and is in the process of loading data and testing interfaces with CancerLinQ, Hunt says. When the program is fully launched, all cancer care providers will have access to it. “Our Sanford oncology team is eager to put this tool to work as they feel appropriate,” Hunt says.

CancerLinQ is funded through a grant from the American Society of Clinical Oncology and donations through the Conquer Cancer Foundation, according to Sanford.

“The overall benefit is to reveal a multitude of practical insights that will help our cancer team improve the care of every patient with cancer,” Hunt says. “CancerLinQ will help us to identify patients that are eligible for clinical trials — which allows more patients to have access to the most advanced treatments — but it will also help us to learn from our entire cancer patient population, and the cancer patients throughout the nation.” PB

Lisa Gibson EDITOR, PRAIRIE BUSINESS 701.787.6753