Healthcare Industry News: National Comprehensive Cancer Network
News Release - February 26, 2007
NCCN Updates Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS) Guidelines
JENKINTOWN, Pa.--(HSMN NewsFeed)--The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) announces important updates to the NCCN Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS) Guidelines. The NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology(TM) are widely recognized and applied as the standard of care in oncology in the United States in both the community and the academic practice settings. 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 addition of darbepoetin alfa (Aranesp®, Amgen) as a recommendation for anemic patients with low-intermediate risk MDS. Studies indicate that darbepoetin is an active, safe and well-tolerated treatment for anemia offering patients an overall improvement in quality of life.
The panel also added single agents azacytidine (Vidaza®, Pharmion) and decitabine (Dacogen(TM), MGI Pharma) to the guidelines as primary treatment for patients with INT-2 and high-risk MDS who are intensive therapy candidates but have no available donor for hemopoietic stem cell transplant.
NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology(TM) are developed and updated through an evidence-based 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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