Cancer research is broken. The connections between cancer patients and scientists are weak and, as a result, scientists don’t have the access to tumor samples and medical information they need to develop treatments. This problem is even worse for rare cancers, since most medical centers see too few rare cancer patients to observe the patterns of the disease.

Pattern.org is a flexible platform bridging the gap between cancer patients and scientists. Pattern.org enables cancer patients to directly donate their tumor tissue and medical data to high-impact research projects. In this way, Pattern.org empowers patients to be directly involved in cancer research.

Tissue and medical data shared by patients through Pattern.org help scientists develop next generation cancer models, which will be made widely available to the research community. Using these models, researchers can identify cancer’s key points of vulnerability and accelerate drug development.

The future in cancer treatment lies in making treatments specific to patients. To get there, patients and researchers need to join forces in understanding the disease. Pattern.org is building an ecosystem which brings stakeholders together, giving researchers the opportunity to identify paths to improve patient outcomes.

Pattern.org, was launched by the Rare Cancer Research Foundation (rcrf.org) a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to curing rare cancers through strategic investments and collaborations that catalyze effective research and accelerate deployment of promising therapies.