Al B. Benson III, MD
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) has released a new resource to help patients with liver, gallbladder, and bile duct cancers better understand their diagnosis and treatment options. This new edition of the NCCN Guidelines for Patients® takes the evidence-based, expert consensus treatment recommendations from the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology® and creates a patient-friendly version void of overly clinical language. Funding was provided by the NCCN Foundation®, with sponsorship from the Global Liver Institute, with content endorsed by the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation.
Al B. Benson III, MD, of Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, cautions patients against relying on the internet in general for information about cancer treatments, since that information can be highly variable and sometimes incorrect.
The content in the NCCN patient guidelines is vetted by expert clinicians from the NCCN member institutions. The booklets include patient-friendly elements, such as questions to ask the doctor, a glossary of terms, and medical illustrations. They are available free of charge at NCCN.org/patients or via an app for smartphones and tablets. The library currently contains guidelines for more than 40 different cancer types, including breast, colon, lung, and prostate cancers. ■
