News Details
Proven standards for cancer care to be introduced in Poland through collaboration with foremost American cancer guidelines organization ‘NCCN’
Maria Sklodowska-Curie National Research Institute (MSCNRIO), National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) and Alliance for Innovation (AFI) has signed a cooperation agreement enabling experts from NCCN in the United States to share their proven expertise and international experience to improve the clinical guidelines in Poland.
WARSAW, POLAND and PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA [April 1, 2021]—The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) is an alliance of 31 leading cancer centers across the United States, most of which are designated as comprehensive cancer centers by the U.S. Government’s National Cancer Institute. NCCN has expressed agreement to share their highly acclaimed practices in establishing, implementing, and sustaining clinical practice guidelines with Poland. This collaboration is intended to improve country-specific guidelines for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in Poland – as called for in Poland’s National Cancer Strategy.
- NCCN defines and advances high-quality, high-value, patient-centered cancer care globally, through the creation and dissemination of cancer treatment guidelines and other content. The evidence- and expert consensus-based recommendations in the NCCN Guidelines are updated continuously through a completely transparent process and are considered the gold standard for clinical direction and policy in cancer management. – says Robert W. Carlson, MD, Chief Executive Officer, NCCN.
NCCN will collaborate with leading cancer care experts in Poland to adapt, implement, and regularly update NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®) to better reflect the standards of evidence-based cancer care in Poland.
- It is always worthwhile to make use of good examples. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network has an extensive and long experience in creating clinical practice guidelines. These guidelines are well known and used not only in the United States, but they are role models for oncologists worldwide. I do believe our cooperation will be important and will help to improve quality of care for patients with cancer in Poland, that is the main focus of the National Oncological Strategy. – says Prof. Maciej Krzakowski, Plenipotentiary Director of the MSCNRIO for Clinical Guidelines.
American experts will support Polish oncology institutions with their expertise and international experience.
NCCN’s experience can help meet the challenges faced by Polish oncology experts. Next steps will involve the development of methods for establishing initial standardized guidelines, establishment of a system for gathering and analyzing results, updating recommendations, and organizing meetings for experts and individual scientists. The Trans-Atlantic cooperation between MSCNRIO and NCCN will encompass a series of educational and knowledge exchange workshops taking place online.
The first Educational Workshop entitled: “Clinical Guidelines - Sharing Experiences with the National Comprehensive Cancer Network” will take place on May 14, 2021.
- The cooperation with NCCN is the important step forward for improvement of Polish guidelines in selected oncological entities which were underdeveloped in our country. It will allow for decreasing the inequalities in cancer care in the near future, which is one of the main goals established in the National Oncological Strategy. – says Prof. Piotr Rutkowski - Chairman of the ministerial team for the National Oncological Strategy in Poland.
Cooperation on the first NCCN Guidelines for Poland will follow the educational workshop.
The collaboration will begin with a pilot project to adapt NCCN Guidelines to accommodate local circumstances that might include metabolic differences in populations, local accessibility, and regulatory status of health care technologies used in Poland. The pilot project will serve as a model that Poland can use to develop, implement and update additional adapted guidelines.
The development of clinical practice guidelines for improved diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in Poland and keeping them up-to-date is one of the tasks included in Poland’s National Cancer Strategy, executed by the Maria Sklodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology (MSCNRIO), established by the Ministry of Health. The clinical guidelines for 17 high priority cancer types will be implemented by the end of 2022.
- This is further and important step in the collaboration between the USA and Poland in the field of oncology. The partnership with NCI and now NCCN allows us bootstring the quality of cancer patients’ care in Poland. – underlines Prof. Iwona Lugowska, Plenipotentiary of the Director for International Cooperation of MSCNRIO.
Alliance For Innovation brings together Polish and American experts to improve cancer care in Poland.
- We are pleased that Alliance for Innovation supports another international activity in bridging oncology and experts from USA and Poland – emphasizes Marcin Hanczaruk, Co-Chairman of Alliance For Innovation.
The cooperation between specialists from across the Atlantic and their Polish colleagues is coordinated by the Alliance For Innovation – Polish-American Foundation that promotes and facilitates opportunities between Poland and the United States to develop successful projects and products in science, economy, and culture.
More information about the parties involved:
National Comprehensive Cancer Network
www.nccn.org
Maria Sklodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology
www.pib-nio.pl
Alliance For Innovation
www.alliance4innovation.org