The NCCN Guidelines Development Program

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) has begun a program for the development of comprehensive clinical practice guidelines for the management of the most common tumors. The NCCN guidelines reflect a process of consensus that relies on evaluation of the evidence and structured feedback. The guidelines are designed to reflect clinical decision-making, and attempt to deal with the complexity of managing cancer. The initial guidelines effort has yielded eight guidelines for adult cancers and three for pediatric cancers. The guidelines are set up in algorithm format. The NCCN members believe that clinical trials are always an appropriate form of patient management, and that the inclusion of a patient in a clinical trial is preferred at every decision point in the algorithm.