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NCCN Updates Breast Cancer Risk Reduction Guidelines

JENKINTOWN, Pa., February 13, 2007 — The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) announces updates to the NCCN Breast Cancer Risk Reduction Guidelines. The NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology™ are widely recognized and applied as the standard for care in oncology in both the community practice setting and in academic cancer centers. These guidelines are updated continually and are based upon evaluation of scientific data integrated with expert judgment.

One major change in the 2007 version of the guidelines is the addition of raloxifene (Evista®, Eli Lilly) as a breast cancer risk reduction agent for healthy postmenopausal women at increased risk of breast cancer. This addition follows publication of the results of the Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene (STAR) trial, which directly compared the efficacy and safety of raloxifene versus tamoxifen for postmenopausal women 35 years or older at increased risk of invasive breast cancer. Results demonstrated that raloxifene was as effective as tamoxifen in reducing the risk of invasive cancer in the study population. The NCCN panel recommends that the choice of a risk reduction agent should be individualized and decided as part of a shared decision-making process between patient and physician.

NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology™ are developed and updated through a consensus-driven 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.