How the Testicular Cancer Foundation built an AI agent that answers at 2 AM

At a glance

The Testicular Cancer Foundation (TCF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2009 in Austin, Texas, dedicated to awareness, early detection, and support for patients, survivors, and caregivers. Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in men between 15 and 35, with survival above 95% when caught early. The obstacle has never been treatment. It is the silence before someone is ready to ask for help, often late at night, when no one is available.

The person sitting alone at midnight with a question they cannot say out loud

For years, TCF had no way to reach the person staring at a lump they found two hours earlier, not ready to call a doctor or tell anyone they know. The foundation had a website, educational resources, and staff who cared deeply, but no way to show up in real time, at any hour, with a response that felt honest rather than clinical. For a lean nonprofit, staffing that moment around the clock was never possible.

A clinical-grade agent, trained only on content TCF trusts

In January 2026, TCF launched the TC Navigator, an AI agent embedded directly into testicularcancer.org and built on Chatbase. It is trained only on TCF's own verified clinical content, covering symptoms, diagnosis, treatment protocols, survivorship, and caregiver support, supplemented by vetted third-party sources its team curates. It does not pull from the open internet. Using retrieval-augmented generation, it grounds every answer in that source material rather than fabricating responses, which is why it can accurately discuss AFP markers, RPLND surgical protocols, and BEP chemotherapy regimens. SOC 2 Type II certification and GDPR compliance let TCF serve patients across borders without added legal exposure, and it responds in multiple languages with no configuration.

The results

• 484 individual questions answered in the first 30 days, across 60 conversations, with no staff member typing a single word.
• 28% of conversations came from outside the US, reaching patients in Brazil, Croatia, Germany, India, Nigeria, Poland, Turkey, Vietnam, and the UK.
• More than 20% of sessions began with some version of "I feel a lump," and for many users the Navigator was the first cancer-related resource they had ever consulted.
• Heaviest usage fell between 4 PM and midnight, exactly when clinical staff are offline and anxiety peaks. One Brazilian survivor, five months out from chemotherapy, sent 157 messages in a single session working through his CT scan results.

What's next

The conversations surfaced, at scale, exactly which content areas TCF had underserved, from post-treatment anxiety to hormonal replacement after orchiectomy to fertility preservation timelines. The agent is now both a support tool and a map of what patients actually need, guiding where the foundation expands its knowledge base next.