NCCN Updates Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Guidelines

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Title: NCCN Updates Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Guidelines
URL: http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/2162CE.htm
Doctor's Guide
October 23, 2007

JENKINTOWN, PA -- October 23, 2007 -- The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) announces important updates to the NCCN Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) Guidelines. The NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology™ 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.

An entirely new section has been added to the NSCLC guidelines for Thymic Malignancies, which include thymomas and thymic carcinomas. The new section includes principles of surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy.

The postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy regimens for early-stage NSCLC have been expanded and clarified by providing additional cisplatin-based regimens and chemotherapy regimens to use for patients with comorbidities or patients not able to tolerate cisplatin. These alternatives are mainly carboplatin-based regimens.

Another update to the guidelines involves the use of molecular markers to individualize therapy for patients. Patients with NSCLC who have never smoked and whose tumors contain epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations will respond to tyrosine kinase inhibitors, such as erlotinib (Tarceva®, Genentech). Thus, the NCCN guidelines now state that clinicians can consider using erlotinib (with or without chemotherapy) for patients with advanced or metastatic cancer who have never smoked and whose tumors have a known active EGFR mutation.

NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology™ are developed and continually 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.

For questions about NCCN or for interview information, please contact Thomas Mitchell at 215.690.0245.

About the National Comprehensive Cancer Network

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), a not-for-profit alliance of 21 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.

SOURCE: National Comprehensive Cancer Network

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