Flatiron Health and NCCN Renew Collaboration to Expand Real-World Evidence Research in Oncology
Flatiron Health, a leading healthtech company focused on improving cancer care and advancing oncology research through real-world data (RWD), has announced the renewal of its long-standing collaboration with the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®), an alliance of leading cancer centers dedicated to patient care, research, and education. The renewed agreement extends the partnership through 2028 and strengthens Flatiron’s commitment to supporting real-world evidence (RWE) research across the NCCN academic medical center network.
The collaboration, which began in 2014, is designed to provide NCCN Member Institutions with access to oncology data, analytical resources, educational programs, and research opportunities that can help investigators better understand cancer treatment patterns and outcomes. Under the renewed agreement, Flatiron is also expanding the ways researchers within the NCCN network can engage with its data through Flatiron Telescope, an AI-powered oncology intelligence platform intended to make research and data exploration more accessible to a broader range of users.
The expanded collaboration reflects the growing role of real-world evidence in oncology. As cancer treatment continues to become more personalized and increasingly complex, researchers and healthcare organizations require large, high-quality datasets to evaluate how therapies are being used in routine clinical practice, identify gaps in care, study patient populations, and generate evidence that can complement findings from traditional clinical trials.
Long-Standing Collaboration Extends Through 2028
Flatiron and NCCN have worked together since 2014 to support research and quality improvement activities across leading academic cancer centers. The renewal provides participating NCCN Member Institutions with continued access to Flatiron’s core offerings for academic research.
These resources include curated, de-identified oncology datasets covering more than 6 million patients. By providing access to large-scale, research-grade real-world oncology data while protecting patient identities, the collaboration enables investigators to examine a broad range of clinical questions across different cancer types, treatments, patient populations, and stages of disease.
Researchers will also continue to have access to analytical support from the Flatiron team. This support is intended to help academic investigators make effective use of real-world data and apply appropriate analytical approaches to their research programs. Educational programming will likewise continue, helping institutions and researchers maximize the value of the available datasets and research tools.
The partnership also includes continued participation in Flatiron’s Grants program. Eligible subscribers can compete for research grants, with up to seven grants made available on a biannual basis. These grants provide an additional avenue for investigators within the NCCN network to pursue research projects using Flatiron’s real-world oncology data.
Together, the data, analytical support, education, and grant opportunities create a framework for investigators to conduct research addressing some of the most important challenges in modern cancer care.
Supporting Research Across Multiple Oncology Questions
The renewed collaboration is expected to support research across a broad range of oncology topics. Real-world datasets can provide researchers with insights into patterns of care, including how treatment strategies are implemented in clinical practice and how those approaches may vary across patient populations or healthcare settings.
Investigators can also explore predictive biomarkers and treatment outcomes, potentially helping researchers understand which patient characteristics are associated with different therapeutic responses. Other areas of research supported through the collaboration include healthcare disparities and comparative effectiveness.
Healthcare disparities remain an important area of investigation in oncology, as differences in access to care, treatment patterns, patient characteristics, and clinical outcomes can affect the cancer experience. Real-world evidence can help researchers identify these differences at scale and examine where improvements may be needed.
Comparative effectiveness research represents another important application. By analyzing treatment patterns and outcomes among large groups of patients, researchers can investigate how different therapeutic approaches perform in routine clinical settings. Such analyses can complement controlled clinical trial evidence and provide additional insight into the experiences of broader patient populations.
Crystal S. Denlinger, MD, Chief Executive of NCCN, emphasized the value of the partnership for Member Institutions and for efforts to improve cancer care. She noted that the continued collaboration supports research and quality improvement while providing insights into the implementation of guideline-concordant care and potential gaps in care delivery.
NCCN’s broader mission is focused on ensuring that patients have access to quality, effective cancer care and prevention. Collaborations that enable academic cancer centers to study real-world implementation can contribute to that mission by helping institutions understand how evidence-based recommendations translate into everyday clinical practice.
Flatiron Telescope Expands Access to Oncology Intelligence
A major component of the renewed agreement is the introduction of Flatiron Telescope to the NCCN member network.
Flatiron Telescope is designed to make exploration of oncology real-world data more intuitive and accessible. Rather than limiting data analysis to individuals with advanced technical or programming expertise, the platform is intended to enable a broader group of researchers and users to explore datasets, evaluate research feasibility, and generate insights in real time.
The platform allows investigators to dynamically stratify large-scale oncology datasets according to factors such as biomarkers, lines of therapy, and treatment history. Researchers can generate patient cohorts on demand, helping them evaluate whether sufficient data exists to support a particular research question before moving into more extensive study planning and execution.
This capability can be particularly valuable during the early stages of research. Determining whether an appropriate patient population exists within a dataset, understanding relevant treatment histories, and assessing the availability of clinical characteristics can all influence the design and feasibility of an oncology study.
By making these types of analyses more accessible, Flatiron Telescope is intended to shorten the path from an initial research question to a feasible study concept.
The platform also reflects a broader shift toward incorporating artificial intelligence and more intuitive analytical technologies into healthcare research. As oncology datasets continue to expand, researchers increasingly need tools that allow them to interact with large volumes of information efficiently while maintaining the rigor required for evidence generation.
Broadening Participation in Real-World Evidence Research
Quincy Weatherspoon, Chief Network Officer at Flatiron Health, said the continuation of the relationship with NCCN demonstrates the company’s commitment to supporting leading cancer centers with data, tools, and resources for real-world evidence research.
According to Weatherspoon, technologies such as Flatiron Telescope represent the next stage of that commitment by making it easier for more people within NCCN Member Institutions to conduct research and contribute to evidence that can improve cancer care.
The expansion is significant because real-world evidence research increasingly involves multidisciplinary teams. Clinicians, epidemiologists, biostatisticians, health services researchers, data scientists, and other specialists may all contribute to a single research program. Providing intuitive tools for data exploration can help broaden participation and allow researchers to engage with real-world datasets earlier in the research process.
For academic medical centers, this can also facilitate collaboration between clinical and research teams. Investigators can use real-world data to identify patient populations, examine treatment experiences, generate hypotheses, and potentially inform future research programs.
Advancing Evidence-Based Cancer Care
The renewed Flatiron-NCCN collaboration comes as real-world evidence continues to play an increasingly important role in understanding cancer care beyond the controlled environment of clinical trials.
Clinical trials remain essential for establishing the safety and efficacy of new treatments, but they often operate under specific eligibility requirements and controlled conditions. Real-world data can provide complementary information by capturing patients and treatment experiences encountered in routine oncology practice.
Large oncology datasets can therefore help researchers investigate questions that may be difficult to address through clinical trials alone. These include treatment patterns across diverse populations, use of therapies over time, implementation of guidelines, healthcare disparities, and comparative outcomes.
Through its continued relationship with NCCN, Flatiron aims to provide academic cancer centers with resources to investigate these questions while also supporting quality improvement efforts.
The agreement will remain in place through 2028, giving NCCN Member Institutions continued access to Flatiron’s oncology datasets, analytical support, educational programming, research grants, and the newly expanded capabilities provided through Flatiron Telescope.
The collaboration ultimately brings together NCCN’s network of leading cancer centers and Flatiron’s real-world oncology data and technology capabilities. By expanding access to data and research tools, the two organizations aim to help investigators generate evidence that can improve understanding of cancer treatment, identify opportunities to address gaps in care, and support the continued advancement of evidence-based oncology practice.
For additional information, interested readers can visit NCCN.org and Flatiron Health.
About Flatiron Health
Flatiron Health is a healthtech company expanding the possibilities for point of care solutions in oncology and using data for good to power smarter care for every person with cancer. Through machine learning and AI, real-world evidence, and breakthroughs in clinical trials, we continue to transform patients’ real-life experiences into knowledge and create a more modern, connected oncology ecosystem. Flatiron Health is an independent affiliate of the Roche Group. Flatiron.com @FlatironHealth
About The National Comprehensive Cancer Network
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) is a not-for-profit alliance of leading cancer centers devoted to patient care, research, and education. NCCN is dedicated to defining and advancing quality, effective, equitable, and accessible cancer care and prevention so all people can live better lives. Visit NCCN.org for more information on the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®) and other initiatives.