AstraZeneca and Roche's Genentech unit are backing a new study by PatientsLikeMe that will examine patients' experiences with cancer treatments.

The online community is working with informatics firm M2Gen on the project, which aims to shed new light on the factors that may affect outcomes and quality of life.

It's not the first time AZ has worked with PatientsLikeMe, with the two teaming up in 2015 for a five-year real-world data project that began by focusing on respiratory disease, lupus, diabetes and oncology.

Commenting on the new study, PatientsLikeMe CEO Martin Coulter said: “As we continue to expand our real-world measurement system, we want to ensure we're giving patients access to all of the information needed to help guide their care decisions.

“By integrating data from multiple sources, we'll be able to get, and give, a more comprehensive picture of disease and patients' experience managing it.”

It will combine the real-world, patient-reported outcomes that are shared PatientsLikeMe members with molecular and clinical data shared by patients enrolled in the Total Cancer Care programme at Moffitt Cancer Center and The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr William Dalton, founder and CEO of Florida-based M2Gen, said the collaboration would help guide the evolution of cancer care.

“This partnership brings together everything we need to better understand the patient, identify unmet needs, and use that insight to develop better technology, treatments and care protocols,” he said. “We ultimately hope it provides the tools and information patients and their doctors will use to make treatment decisions that are tuned to patients' life goals and treatment preferences.”

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