NCCN Updates Breast Cancer Guidelines

FORT WASHINGTON, Pa.--(Business Wire)--The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) is proud to
announce several new updates to the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines
in Oncology(TM) Breast Cancer. These changes highlight leading
developments in the treatment of breast cancer and represent the
recognized standard for clinical care in oncology in both the
community and the academic practice settings.

A new section focusing on the treatment of patients with
inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) has been added. IBC is a rare,
aggressive form of breast cancer estimated to account for 1% to 6% of
breast cancer cases in the United States. IBC is characterized by
redness and swelling of the skin of the breast due to blockage of
lymph vessels by cancer cells. Recommendations from the NCCN Guideline
Panel for treatment of IBC (without evidence of metastases) involve a
combined modality approach including preoperative chemotherapy with an
anthracycline with or without a taxane followed by total mastectomy
and radiation therapy for patients responding to preoperative
chemotherapy.

In the latest version of the NCCN Guidelines, the option of using
a gene-based assay of tumor tissue (Oncotype DX(R), Genomic Health) to
help guide chemotherapy treatment decisions is now included within the
systemic adjuvant treatment decision pathway for patients with hormone
receptor-positive, HER2-negative tumors that are 0.6 to 1.0 cm and
moderately/poorly differentiated or with unfavorable features, or
greater than 1 cm.

Bevacizumab (Avastin(R), Genentech) continues to be a recommended
therapy in combination with paclitaxel for the treatment of recurrent
or metastatic breast cancer.

The NCCN Breast Cancer Guideline V.2.2008 now includes new
sections covering principles of breast reconstruction following
mastectomy and principles of radiation therapy.

About the National Comprehensive Cancer Network

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), a not-for-profit
alliance of 21 of the world's leading cancer centers, is dedicated to
improving the quality and effectiveness of care provided to patients
with cancer. Through the leadership and expertise of clinical
professionals at NCCN Member Institutions, NCCN develops resources
that present valuable information to the numerous stakeholders in the
health care delivery system. As the arbiter of high-quality cancer
care, NCCN promotes the importance of continuous quality improvement
and recognizes the significance of creating clinical practice
guidelines appropriate for use by patients, clinicians, and other
health care decision-makers. The primary goal of all NCCN initiatives
is to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of oncology
practice so patients can live better lives.

For more information, visit www.nccn.org.

The NCCN Member Institutions are: City of Hope, Los Angeles, CA;
Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center - Massachusetts General
Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, MA; Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center,
Durham, NC; Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA; Huntsman Cancer
Institute at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; Fred
Hutchinson Cancer Research Center/Seattle Cancer Care Alliance,
Seattle, WA; Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital & Richard J. Solove
Research Institute at The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH; The
Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Baltimore,
MD; Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern
University, Chicago, IL; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New
York, NY; H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa,
FL; Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY; Siteman Cancer Center
at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of
Medicine, St. Louis, MO; St. Jude Children's Research
Hospital/University of Tennessee Cancer Institute, Memphis, TN;
Stanford Comprehensive Cancer Center, Stanford, CA; University of
Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Cancer Center, Birmingham, AL;
UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, San Francisco,
CA; University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ann Arbor, MI;
UNMC Eppley Cancer Center at The Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE;
The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX; and
Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville, TN.

NCCN
Thomas Mitchell, 215-690-0245
mitchell@nccn.org
www.nccn.org

Copyright Business Wire 2008