• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

NCCN Offers Online Resources for Patients With Breast Cancer

Posted on: Thursday, 6 October 2005, 12:00 CDT

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) presents clinical information and resources to help patients understand, discuss and cope with breast cancer, online at www.nccn.org/patients/breast_cancer_month.asp. NCCN's Breast Cancer Resources Page provides patients and their loved ones access to the same clinical practice guidelines oncologists use to treat breast cancer, information about clinical trials at NCCN member institutions and a cancer links section including links to support organizations, patient financial assistance programs and more.

With ever-developing and changing treatment options, patients need tools to facilitate discussions with their physicians. The NCCN Breast Cancer Treatment Guidelines for Patients explain these options in flowchart form in easy-to-understand language. "No other comprehensive breast cancer treatment guideline is updated more frequently or disseminated more widely than the NCCN Breast Cancer Guidelines," said Robert Carlson, M.D., Chair of the NCCN Breast Cancer Guidelines Panel. "Advances in the treatment of breast cancer continue at a very rapid pace and are resulting in increasing rates of survival. These numerous important advances make it essential that physicians and patients have access to current, state-of-the-art treatment recommendations from a multidisciplinary group of breast cancer specialists. The NCCN Breast Cancer Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology(TM) for physicians and NCCN Breast Cancer Treatment Guidelines for Patients are designed to fill this need."

With the information at the NCCN Breast Cancer Resources Page, patients can better understand specific courses of treatment along with the quality-of-life and survivorship issues that follow treatment. "Cancer is a disease where the decisions a patient must make are life-altering and affect not only survival but quality of life," said Mary Lou Smith, Patient Advocate on the NCCN Breast Cancer Guidelines Panel, "As patients increasingly become equal partners with their doctors in treatment decision-making, it is crucial that they have evidence-based information to inform their decisions. This site gives them that information through the NCCN Breast Cancer Guidelines and helps them find resources to support them through their treatment and survival."

When using NCCN Breast Cancer Resources Page, patients can participate with their multidisciplinary team of breast cancer specialists informed by the best of the world's scientific evidence and clinical experience. "I read the NCCN Breast Cancer Guidelines right after my diagnosis," said cancer survivor Linda Angello. "After I read them, I felt empowered to discuss my options with my health care team."

For more information about the NCCN Breast Cancer Resources Page, contact Susan Sommerville at 215-690-0254.

About the National Comprehensive Cancer Network

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), a nonprofit alliance of 19 of the world's leading cancer centers, is dedicated to improving the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of oncology practice so patients can live better lives. Through the leadership and expertise of clinical professionals at NCCN member institutions, NCCN develops resources that present valuable information to the numerous stakeholders throughout the health care delivery system. As the arbiter of high-quality cancer care, NCCN emphasizes the importance of and promotes continuous quality improvement, creating and publishing clinical practice guidelines appropriate for use by patients, clinicians, and other health care decision-makers. NCCN programs include: Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology(TM), the NCCN Drugs & Biologics Compendium(TM), Treatment Guidelines for Patients, the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (JNCCN), Cancer Resource Lines for Leukemia and Multiple Myeloma, educational conferences and symposia for clinicians, the Oncology Outcomes Database Project, the NCCN Oncology Research Program, NCCN Cancer Case Manager(TM), and collaborations with managed care organizations.

The NCCN member institutions are:

-- City of Hope Cancer Center

-- Dana-Farber/Partners CancerCare

-- Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center

-- Fox Chase Cancer Center

-- Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah

-- Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center / Seattle Cancer Care Alliance

-- Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute at The Ohio State University

-- The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins

-- Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University

-- Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

-- H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute at the University of South Florida

-- Roswell Park Cancer Institute

-- St. Jude Children's Research Hospital / University of Tennessee Cancer Institute

-- Stanford Hospital & Clinics

-- University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Cancer Center

-- UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center

-- University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center

-- UNMC Eppley Cancer Center at The Nebraska Medical Center

-- The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center

Source: Business Wire

More News in this Category