What You Should Know
- Flatiron Health, an independent affiliate of the Roche Group, has renewed its strategic oncology research partnership with the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) through 2028, extending a collaborative alliance originally established in 2014.
- Core Academic Assets: Participating NCCN Member Institutions maintain access to Flatiron’s curated, de-identified real-world datasets spanning more than 6 million oncology patient journeys across academic and community care environments.
- Introducing Flatiron Telescope: The renewed agreement expands member tooling by deploying Flatiron Telescope, an AI-powered intelligence platform that democratizes real-world data (RWD) exploration.
Democratizing Real-World Evidence with Flatiron Telescope
The central pillar of the expanded agreement is the deployment of Flatiron Telescope, an AI-powered oncology intelligence platform designed to transition RWD querying from technical programmers to front-line clinical researchers.
First introduced in mid-2026, Telescope utilizes a multi-agent adaptive analytics engine that translates conversational, natural language research questions directly into structured queries and audit-ready data models:
- Natural Language Cohort Generation: Investigators can define complex clinical trial inclusion/exclusion criteria—such as prior lines of therapy, specific genomic biomarker mutations, or progression events—without writing SQL or custom code.
- Dynamic Feasibility & Attrition Modeling: The interface generates real-time patient count updates and cohort attrition waterfalls as criteria are refined, allowing investigators to stress-test study designs and sample sizes immediately.
- Transparent Logic & Governance: Operating under a “show-your-work” framework, Telescope surfaces both plain-language reasoning summaries and raw underlying query code, validated against Flatiron’s peer-reviewed VALID Framework to ensure publication-grade, audit-ready rigor.
Longitudinal Scale and Ongoing Investigator Support
Under the extended agreement, participating NCCN Member Institutions maintain access to Flatiron’s curated, de-identified oncology dataset covering more than 6 million patients across the U.S. community and academic care settings.
Beyond data access, the collaboration maintains several research support mechanisms:
- Analytical & Educational Programming: Dedicated Flatiron methodological support and training curriculums designed to help clinical fellows and academic investigators navigate real-world data intricacies.
- Flatiron Grants Program: Flatiron will continue to award research funding, offering up to seven research grants biannually to eligible NCCN alliance investigators.
- Closing the Guideline-Care Gap: Supplies NCCN with longitudinal insight into how clinical practice aligns with the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®), spotlighting disparities in biomarker testing adoption, drug sequencing patterns, and geographic access gaps.
“Our continued collaboration with Flatiron supports our Member Institutions in their research and quality improvement efforts while providing insights regarding implementation of guideline-concordant care as well as gaps in care delivery,” said Dr. Crystal S. Denlinger, Chief Executive Officer of NCCN. “Through collaborations such as this one with Flatiron, NCCN strives to ensure that everyone has access to quality, effective cancer care and prevention.”
