News Details

National Comprehensive Cancer Network Breast Cancer Database: Five Years in Operation and 10,000 Patients Enrolled

ROCKLEDGE, PA, October 9, 2002 – The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) is pleased to announce the NCCN Oncology Outcomes Database has achieved an exciting milestone by completing five years in operation. The most mature portion of this database — the breast cancer database — now collects, analyzes, and reports data on more than 10,000 women with breast cancer, providing researchers with valuable information to improve patient care.

“The NCCN Oncology Outcomes Database has progressed further on a national basis than any other effort in medicine,” said William T. McGivney, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of NCCN. “It serves to implement guidelines about appropriate care through performance measurement and seeks to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of patient care on an ongoing basis.”

The NCCN Oncology Outcomes Database, established in 1997, is a rich resource repository of data and information for NCCN clinical and health services research investigators. To find new ways to improve patient care, the database evaluates the extent to which practice within NCCN member institutions is in concordance with the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology. These guidelines are the recognized standard reference for appropriate practice in the field of oncology, and measures the outcomes (clinical and non-clinical) associated with such practice patterns. The database also tracks trends in drug utilization, including use within and beyond the FDA-approved label. A planned expansion of the database may offer future applications in genomics and proteomics.

“We will also be able to use this database to study outcomes of standard treatments in populations that are typically underrepresented in clinical trials, such as the elderly, and to track patterns of adoption of novel therapies,” said Jane Weeks, MD, MSc, Chair of NCCN’s Outcomes Committee. Dr. Weeks is also Associate Professor of Medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School and the Director of the Center for Outcomes and Policy Research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

NCCN first began tracking newly diagnosed women with breast cancer, who were treated at five of their member institutions in July 1997. An additional seven member institutions currently submit data. They are: City of Hope Cancer Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Fox Chase Cancer Center, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute at the University of South Florida, University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital & Richard J. Solove Research Institute at The Ohio State University, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Stanford Hospital and Clinics, University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, UNMC Eppley Cancer Center at The Nebraska Medical Center, and University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Cancer Center. Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center recently joined as the thirteenth participating institution and will soon begin submitting data.