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NCCN to Present Guidelines in China

JENKINTOWN, Pa., February 21, 2007 — The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), a not-for-profit alliance of 20 of the world’s leading cancer centers, will present the Breast, Colorectal, Gastric, Non-Small Cell Lung and Non-Hodgkin`s Lymphoma (NHL) NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology™ in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, China. Over the course of five meetings in March and April, experts from NCCN Member Institutions and leading physicians in China will review and adapt these guidelines for use in China.

Oncologists outside the United States refer to the NCCN guidelines, but they face challenges with certain treatment recommendations because their patients and health care systems differ from those in the United States. Last year, NCCN physicians and Chinese physicians made minor changes to the breast and non-small cell lung cancer guidelines to account for differences in patient drug metabolism and availability of specific drugs in China. After the success of those meetings, NCCN was invited again, this time to address the Non-Hodgkin`s Lymphoma (NHL), Gastric and Colorectal guidelines as well as to update the Breast and Non-Small Cell Lung cancer guidelines for practice in China.

Drs. Andrew Zelenetz, Mark Kris and David Ilson from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York will represent NCCN in Beijing and Shanghai on March 24 and 25. They will be presenting the NHL, non-small cell lung and gastric cancer guidelines. Drs. Harold Burstein from Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Al B. Benson III from the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University will be presenting the colorectal and breast cancer guidelines in Beijing and Guangzhou.