Dear Colleague:

Welcome to Highlights of the NCCN 13^th Annual Conference: Clinical Practice Guidelines & Quality Cancer Care™. Once again, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) is pleased to provide you with a synopsis of the proceedings of our annual flagship event, held March 5–9 at the Westin Diplomat in Hollywood, Florida. The NCCN Annual Conference attracted more than 1,200 physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other oncology medical professionals from around the country and around the world. The conference program included presentations of NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology™, the latest information about new cancer therapies and quality initiatives in cancer care, and emerging issues in oncology business management. These Highlights communicate the most pertinent and significant presentations of what is new in oncology as presented by internationally recognized authorities.

Again this year, we were pleased to have ABC News veteran and anchor Sam Donaldson moderating a roundtable discussion. “e-Health: Educating, Enlightening, or Exasperating the American Patient with Cancer?” featured representatives from the internet, healthcare agencies, and the government, including Al B. Benson III, MD, chair of the NCCN Board of Directors; Steve Case from RevolutionHealth.com; Nan Forte from WebMD; James Mault, MD, from Microsoft; and Rear Admiral Penelope Slade Royall from the US Department of Health and Human Services. Other presentations summarized in these Highlights include trends in the use of predictive medicine, innovative mechanisms of action in combination therapy for treating lung cancer, and the management of tyrosine kinase inhibitor toxicity, as well as the roundtable “Clinical & Policy Decisions: Comparative Effectiveness, Cost, and Cost-Effectiveness,” featuring a candid discussion by nationally recognized experts in the business, clinical, and payer areas of oncology.

NCCN’s other programs also continue to expand apace with the Annual Conference. The NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology™ continue to serve as the recognized standard for clinical policy in oncology in both the community and the academic practice settings. The breadth and scope of the NCCN Guidelines, which now cover more than 97% of all cancers, represent a significant advance beyond any previously developed guidelines, and they have become the most widely used in oncology practice. The NCCN Drugs & Biologics Compendium™, derived directly from the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology™, contains authoritative, scientifically derived information designed to support decision-making about the appropriate use of drugs and biologics for patients with cancer. Of note, UnitedHealthcare recently announced that it will base its coverage decisions for chemotherapy drugs administered in an outpatient setting on the Compendium. In addition, by the end of 2008, we expect the Compendium to be recognized as a mandated reference for Medicare coverage decisions about the appropriate use of drugs and biologics in cancer care.

The Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (JNCCN), celebrating its sixth successful year, currently ranks seventh in readership among the top 30 oncology journals, and our regional guidelines symposia program also continues to grow, providing opportunities for more than 2,500 participants nationwide to gain in-depth understanding of specific NCCN clinical practice guidelines. The new NCCN Annual Hematologic Malignancies Congress™, begun in 2006, attracts over 500 attendees from across the United States. This conference reviews multiple myeloma, chronic myelogenous leukemia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, myelodysplasia, and acute myelogenous leukemia.

Thanks to the interest and support of individuals and organizations, NCCN continues to grow rapidly in our efforts to improve cancer care. We encourage all the readers of this publication to participate in the NCCN Annual Conference and other NCCN activities and programs. Please visit www.nccn.org for more information on our many programs, only some of which are mentioned here, and to access the NCCN Guidelines, NCCN Compendium, and Treatment Guidelines for Patients. Please also contact us with any questions at 215-690-0300. Your interest and support are what help drive NCCN programmatic development in a collaborative effort to improve the effectiveness and quality of care available to the patients whom we serve.

Thank you, and I look forward to seeing you in Florida on March 11–15, 2009, for our NCCN 14^th Annual Conference.

Sincerely,

William T. McGivney, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
National Comprehensive Cancer Network

From Highlights of the NCCN 13^th Annual Conference: Clinical Practice Guidelines & Quality Cancer Care™, published as a supplement to The Oncology Report by Elsevier Oncology. © 2008 NCCN. All rights reserved.