NCCN Updates Esophageal and Gastric Cancer Guidelines

JENKINTOWN, Pa., May 22, 2007 — The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) announces updates to two NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology™ - Esophageal Cancer and Gastric Cancer. The NCCN Guidelines are updated continuously by panels of world-renowned experts and 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.

In response to favorable Phase III trials (ML 17032 and REAL 2), the panel added oral fluoropyrimidine, Capecitabine (Xeloda®, Roche) as an option for treatment of esophageal and gastric cancer. The REAL 2 study, the largest ever phase III study in advanced esophageal and gastric cancer, found that Capecitabine may replace 5-FU and Oxaliplatin may replace Cisplatin in triplet regimens used for the treatment of advanced esophageal and gastric cancer.

A new page entitled “Principles of Surgery” was added to outline recommended NCCN Guidelines for esophageal surgery. A similar “Principles of Surgery” page was added to the NCCN Gastric Cancer Guidelines.

Based on positive results from the Medical Research Council Adjuvant Gastric Infusional Chemotherapy (MAGIC) trial, the ECF regimen (epirubicin/cisplatin/5-FU) has been added for pre- and post-operative chemotherapy for surgically treatable and potentially curable gastric cancers. The MAGIC trial showed that patients with gastric cancer had a better 5-year survival rate, decreased tumor size and significantly improved progression-free and overall survival when ECF was used perioperatively.

The NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology™ are available free of charge at www.nccn.org.