This is a condensed version of a blog post entitled "Donate Your Data– Share your Cancer Story to Help Yourself While Helping Others"
http://blog.lotstolivefor.com/2014/01/14/donate-your-data-share-your-cancer-story-cancer-commons/
A decade ago, Internet entrepreneur Marty Tenenbaum was diagnosed with melanoma. He visited several local oncologists, but each doctor recommended a different treatment strategy. With no clear solution, he decided to enroll in a clinical trial that was testing a melanoma vaccine.
The vaccine failed the trial. But, for reasons unknown, it saved Tenenbaum’s life.
Inspired by the difficulty of navigating his options, and the need for better ways to figure out which treatments will work for which patients, Tenenbaum founded Cancer Commons—the first & only open access nonprofit collecting and learning from real patient experiences to give patients the information they need.
To support this mission, Cancer Commons has now launched its new Donate Your Data (DYD) Program, an online registry that empowers people with cancer to anonymously share their cancer experiences to advance research and, in return, inform their own clinical care.