SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — The National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health is giving Dakotas-based Sanford Health more than $7.1 million over five years for cancer research.

Sanford says the money will be used to recruit participants for clinical trials, qualify-of-life studies and research on the delivery of cancer care.

The grant was among 53 awarded nationwide through the institute's $93 million Community Oncology Research Program. Sanford Health is the only program participant in the Dakotas and Nebraska.

Sanford Health bills itself as the nation's largest, rural not-for-profit health care system, with locations in 126 communities in nine states.

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