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NCCN Updates Occult Primary Guidelines

JENKINTOWN, Pa., February 26, 2007 — The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) announces important updates to the NCCN Occult Primary 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.

The 2007 version of the guidelines includes two new tables entitled Immunohistochemistry Markers for Unknown Primary Cancers for use in initial evaluation. These tables identify and distinguish between several epithelial malignancies that can be accurately diagnosed using fine-needle aspiration specimens and immunohistochemical analysis.

A Principles of Chemotherapy page has also been added to the guidelines. The panel recommends that chemotherapy should be considered for symptomatic patients with performance status 0-2 or asymptomatic patients with aggressive cancer. The chemotherapy regimens used should be based on the histologic type of cancer. The tables included on the Principles of Chemotherapy page include many new and most commonly used regimens with corresponding references.

NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology 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 23 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. For more information, visit NCCN.org.

The NCCN Member Institutions are:

  • City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center
  • Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center
    Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center
  • Duke Cancer Institute
  • Fox Chase Cancer Center
  • Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah
  • Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center / Seattle Cancer Care Alliance
  • The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins
  • Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University
  • Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
  • Moffitt Cancer Center
  • The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute
  • Roswell Park Cancer Institute
  • Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine
  • St. Jude Children's Research Hospital/The University of Tennessee Health Science Center
  • Stanford Cancer Institute
  • University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Cancer Center
  • UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center
  • UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
  • University of Colorado Cancer Center
  • University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center
  • UNMC Eppley Cancer Center at The Nebraska Medical Center
  • The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
  • Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center

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