JENKINTOWN, PA, November 18, 2003 – The National Comprehensive Cancer Network, an alliance of nineteen of the world’s leading cancer centers, announces an update of the NCCN Breast Cancer Clinical Practice Guidelines.
In a significant change, the NCCN’s Breast Cancer panel has added a new footnote to its recommendations for adjuvant therapy following primary therapy for breast cancer. Based on the recently closed MA-17 trial, panel members indicated that consideration of use of letrozole (Femara®, Novartis) in postmenopausal women with hormone receptor positive breast cancer and who have completed 5 years of tamoxifen as adjuvant therapy is appropriate. The panel stated that the MA-17 study does not address the adjuvant use of protracted or sequential aromatase inhibitors (e.g. letrozole following 5-years of anastrozole or indefinite anastrozole or tamoxifen following an aromatase inhibitor). Letrozole is not appropriate for premenopausal women.
“NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology are widely recognized as the standard for clinical policy in oncology. Additionally, managed care companies are using them increasingly to help establish coverage policy, ” said William McGivney, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of NCCN. “As such, the NCCN recognizes its responsibility to provide up-to-date information to inform decision-making. Thus, the NCCN Guidelines process is an ongoing, continual process.”
NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology are available free of charge on CD-ROM. These can be ordered from NCCN by calling 215-690-0300. The guidelines can also be found at www.nccn.org.