People in a meeting room

iCAN Studyathon: Advancing Real-World Treatment Insights for Lung Cancer

Our first-ever iCAN Studyathon, an initiative focused on metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (mNSCLC) and the real-life impact of immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICIs) therapy, took place in Helsinki on March 25-28, 2025. What started as a focused research effort grew beyond expectations—resulting in the largest federated multi-site oncology study ever, analyzing data from more than 100,000 NSCLC patients worldwide.

Bringing together a group of clinicians, researchers, and data experts from across the globe, the Studyathon delved deep into real-world data to assess the evolving treatment landscape of mNSCLC. While ICIs have revolutionized lung cancer treatment, they do not work for everyone, leaving many critical questions unanswered. This Studyathon was a unique opportunity to generate new, reliable, and actionable evidence to help bridge these knowledge gaps.

In just a few days, the team defined cohorts, analyzed initial results, refined methodologies, and re-ran study code—all in near real-time in standardized and transparent fashion. It was truly an inspiring demonstration of collaborative science at its best. None of this would have been possible without the OMOP common data model, which allows us to share analytic code and generate results securely and efficiently while ensuring that sensitive patient data remains protected at its source.

A massive thank you to our data partners, whose collaboration made this effort possible:

  • Finland: HUS Helsinki University Hospital, VARHA/Tyks Turku University Hospital, PIRHA/Tampere University Hospital
  • Belgium: Antwerp University Hospital (UZA), CHU de Liège, Grand Hôpital de Charleroi (GHdC), and another anonymous hospital
  • Spain: Medical Research Institute La Fe (IIS La Fe, Valencia)
  • Norway: Cancer Registry of Norway (Kreftregisteret), Oslo University Hospital
  • Germany: Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Universitätsklinik Dresden
  • USA: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Emory University
  • UK: Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
  • Denmark: Copenhagen University Hospital
  • Australia: UNSW Sydney
  • Industry partners: AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Roche
  • Institute of Analytics for Health (INAH)

Congratulations to the organizers: iCAN-SHARE team (led by Kimmo Porkka and Eric Fey, and members Alexey Ryzhenkov and Valtteri Nieminen), and the Nemesis Health team (Asieh Golozar, Christian Reich, and Henry Morgan Stewart) on a successful Studyathon!