Summary
Real-world data (RWD) are increasingly relevant in oncology practice.1 RWD can shed light on outcomes of patients who are under-represented or ineligible for clinical trials or with rare cancers that are difficult to study prospectively. In addition, RWD can simulate clinical trials, construct external control groups for single-arm studies, and generate real-world evidence for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory purposes.1 One currently available source of RWD is the health technology platform CancerLinQ®, developed by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in 2014 as part of ASCO's mission to improve quality of cancer care.2 CancerLinQ® extracts electronic health record (EHR) data from participating oncology practices, which are then aggregated, de-identified, and made available for research through CancerLinQ Discovery® (CLQD).3 The CLQD multiple myeloma (MM) dataset was recently accessed, providing an opportunity to highlight important strengths and weaknesses inherent to RWD for the study of MM and other malignancies.