Sharing cancer genomic data from clinical sequencing using the blockchain

Sequencing cancer genomes has transformed how we diagnose and treat the deadliest disease in America: cancer. Benjamin Glicksberg explains how coupling cancer genomic data with treatment data through the blockchain will empower patients and citizen scientists to rapidly advance cancer research.

Clinics are increasingly sequencing cancer genomes and often find mutations whose functions are not clear. Commonly, medical practitioners see a mutation they suspect might engender sensitivity to a treatment but is sufficiently rare in the population that a clinical trial will never be performed to answer this question. So how should they proceed? Benjamin Glicksberg explains how coupling cancer genomic data with treatment data through the blockchain will empower patients and citizen scientists to rapidly advance cancer research. Sharing these mutations—and the responses to treatment seen “in the wild”—will allow medical practitioners to classify those mutations sensitive to a given treatment away from those mutations that are resistant. The power of this approach is that it is populated by the patients themselves, by uploading the data to a blockchain that protects identity but reveals clinically relevant observations such as mutations, clinical imaging, and drugs prescribed for cancer.