Healthcare Industry News: National Comprehensive Cancer Network
News Release - January 29, 2007
NCCN Updates Colon Cancer Guidelines
JENKINTOWN, Pa.--(HSMN NewsFeed)--The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) announces updates to the NCCN Colon Cancer Guidelines. The NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology(TM) are widely recognized and applied as the standard for clinical care in oncology in both the community practice setting and in academic cancer centers. These guidelines are used extensively by managed care companies and by Medicare as the basis for coverage policies. These guidelines are updated continually and are based upon evaluation of scientific data integrated with expert judgment.One of the major changes to the 2007 version of the guidelines was the update to the chemotherapy options for advanced or metastatic disease. The combination regimen CapeOX, which is capecitabine (Xeloda, Roche) and oxaliplatin (Eloxatin, sanofi-aventis), was added as an alternate option to the combination of fluorouracil, leucovorin and oxaliplatin (known as FOLFOX). The combination regimens of fluorouracil, leucovorin and irinotecan (Camptosar, Pfizer) (known as FOLFIRI) + cetuximab and irinotecan + cetuximab were added as treatment options after progression on bevacizumab-containing combination therapy.
Panitumumab (Vectibix, Amgen) was approved by the FDA for the treatment of patients with EGFR-expressing, metastatic colorectal carcinoma with disease progression on or following fluoropyrimidine-, oxaliplatin-, or irinotecan-containing regimens. The NCCN Colon Cancer panel added panitumumab as alternate option to cetuximab after first or second progression on previous therapy. This addition came with a recommendation that patients should not be excluded from therapy on the basis of EGFR results.
NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology(TM) are developed and updated through a consensus-driven process with explicit review of the scientific evidence by multidisciplinary panels of expert physicians from NCCN member institutions. The most recent version of this and all the guidelines are available free of charge at www.nccn.org.
About the National Comprehensive Cancer Network
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), a not-for-profit alliance of 20 of the world's leading cancer centers, is dedicated to improving the quality and effectiveness of care provided to patients with cancer. Through the leadership and expertise of clinical professionals at NCCN member institutions, NCCN develops resources that present valuable information to the numerous stakeholders in the health care delivery system. As the arbiter of high-quality cancer care, NCCN promotes the importance of continuous quality improvement and recognizes the significance of creating clinical practice guidelines appropriate for use by patients, clinicians, and other health care decision-makers. The primary goal of all NCCN initiatives is to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of oncology practice so patients can live better lives.
The NCCN member institutions are: City of Hope Cancer Center, Los Angeles, CA; Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center | Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, MA; Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center, Durham, NC; Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA; Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center/Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Seattle, WA; Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital & Richard J. Solove Research Institute at The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH; The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, MD; Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, Chicago, IL; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY; H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute at the University of South Florida, Tampa, FL; Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY; Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO; St. Jude Children's Research Hospital/University of Tennessee Cancer Institute, Memphis, TN; Stanford Comprehensive Cancer Center, Stanford, CA; University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Cancer Center, Birmingham, AL; UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center, San Francisco, CA; University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ann Arbor, MI; UNMC Eppley Cancer Center at The Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE; and The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX.
For more information, visit www.nccn.org.
Source: National Comprehensive Cancer Network
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