Robert W. Carlson, MD, Chief Executive Officer, National Comprehensive Cancer Network, and John A. Gentile, Jr, Chairman, Harborside Press, LLC, discuss the early days of NCCN, controversies that surrounded the first meeting, oncologists’ embrace of the guidelines, and how the organization has evolved over the past 20 years.
Eric Jonasch, MD, of The University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the progress being made in kidney cancer treatment and the clinical trials that focused on sunitinib, sorafenib, and everolimus, among others.
Mario E. Lacouture, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the effect on patients of dermatologic toxicities associated with targeted therapies: their psychosocial impact, financial burden, physiological pain, and potential to alter therapy. But the side effects of targeted treatments can and should be addressed.
Samuel M. Silver, MD, PhD, of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Margaret A. Tempero, MD, of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, discuss drugs developed for hematologic malignancies that have activity in pancreatic cancer, vaccines, neoadjuvant treatment, and the need to focus on activated RAS.
Samuel M. Silver, MD, PhD, of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Al B. Benson III, MD, FACP, FASCO, of Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, discuss the evolution of NCCN Guidelines, which are available free online, and the components that make them effective: a multidisciplinary approach, the participation of patient advocates, consistency, and affordability of the evidence.
Mary Lou Smith, JD, MBA, of the Research Advocacy Network, discusses, from the perspective of a patient advocate, the value of the NCCN guidelines and the impact they have made on cancer care.
