The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Alliance is a transformative initiative designed to improve the quality of cancer care and the lives of people with cancer by bringing evidence-based, world-class standards of care to community healthcare providers. The MSK Cancer Alliance accelerates the integration of the latest advances in cancer care into the community setting and reduces barriers to high-quality cancer care that many patients and families face. It achieves these ambitious goals without requiring the construction of new facilities.

Goals

• Foster the rapid adoption of MSK’s standards of care and the integration of the latest treatment advances in the community setting
• Expand access to MSK’s clinical trials and cutting-edge cancer research
• Improve the quality of care and outcomes for cancer patients both in the community and at MSK in a measurable way
• Encourage learning and integrated collaboration among physicians and health professionals across all member institutions and MSK

Member Benefits

• Increased access to leading-edge care: MSK clinical trials are established at Alliance member hospitals, dramatically improving patient access to the latest cancer advances and breakthroughs. Alliance members are also empowered to learn, adapt to, and adopt MSK standards of care, giving patients better outcomes.
• Shared knowledge of innovations in cancer care and clinical research programs: Alliance members participate in MSK’s Disease Management Teams and on-site observations of new techniques. They also have access to MSK’s educational resources, quality and outcomes research, and clinical trials offerings and data.
• Improved outcomes: Networks of collaboration and shared learning enable Alliance members to develop strategies to improve outcomes for their patients. MSK and Alliance members work collaboratively to measure changes in survival rates and quality of life.
• Influence on the future of cancer care: Alliance members share with MSK firsthand knowledge of how cancer advances can be effectively disseminated in a community setting, where more than 80 percent of people with cancer in the United States receive their care.
• Educational opportunities: Physicians at Alliance member hospitals have the opportunity to participate in weekly MSK disease management team meetings; to present complex cases to MSK’s multidisciplinary tumor boards; to attend a monthly Alliance lecture series in bone marrow transplant, breast cancer, colon cancer, quality and outcomes, and survivorship; to access MSK’s Nursing Grand Rounds and Advanced Practice Provider Grand Rounds; and to enroll in an annual CME symposium that offers a forum to share ideas, discuss complex cases, and learn more about innovative therapies.

Alliance Member Results to Date

• Patient enrollment in MSK Clinical Trials: 
  • 334 therapeutic accruals, 310 non-therapeutic accruals
• Genome sequencing via MSK-IMPACT:
  • 537 MSK-IMPACT tests
• Implementation of practice-changing standards of care:
  • Adoption of hypofractionated radiation therapy in lung, breast, and prostate cancers
  • Adoption of sentinel lymph node mapping in gynecologic surgery
  • Adoption of MSK diagnosis practices, including in imaging and biopsy
  • Greater access and use of genetic screening 

Requirements for Alliance Members

• Care for a sizable volume of people with cancer
• Clinical trials infrastructure and experience
• High regard in their community
• A commitment to outcomes research
• A commitment to adopting and implementing new clinical standards of care

Learn about existing Alliance members

In the News

• “MSK Cancer Alliance: Mainly About Medicine,” Medpage Today
• “A Cancer Conundrum: Too Many Drug Trials, Too Few Patients,” The New York Times
• “Sloan Kettering to Form Ties with Smaller Cancer Centers,” The Wall Street Journal