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NCCN Updates Thyroid Carcinoma Guidelines

JENKINTOWN, Pa., May 31, 2007 — The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) announces updates to the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology™ - Thyroid Carcinoma. 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.

For papillary, follicular and Hürthle cell carcinoma, the NCCN Thyroid Carcinoma Panel revised the categories guiding the recommendations for postsurgical therapy. The guidelines now offer concise recommendations as to whether a patient should receive radioiodine treatment after surgery.

An additional important change to the guidelines deals with the issue of symptom management versus aggressive treatment. For anaplastic carcinoma, the treatment recommendation of airway management +/- tracheostomy was removed for unresectable disease. According to the guidelines, these patients should proceed immediately to either treatment via clinical trial or radiation therapy plus chemotherapy, or to best supportive care.

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