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NCCN Updates Hepatobiliary Cancer Guidelines

JENKINTOWN, Pa., September 11, 2007 — The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) announces important updates to the NCCN Hepatobiliary Cancer 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 guidelines now include sorafenib (Nexavar®), an oral multikinase inhibitor, as a treatment option for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who have unresectable disease or decline surgery. This change was precipitated by a presentation of results from the phase III Sorafenib HCC Assessment Randomized Protocol (SHARP) trial at the 2007 ASCO meeting. In that study, overall survival was reported to be extended by 44% (46 weeks vs. 34 weeks) in patients with advanced HCC who received sorafenib compared with placebo.

Currently, the guidelines specify that sorafenib is recommended only for patients with liver function status characterized by a Child-Pugh “class A” score. Further, the recommendations regarding sorafenib therapy do not include patients potentially eligible for liver transplant, since the impact of sorafenib on this population of patients is unknown.

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.