China’s 3rd Annual Asia Scientific Congress programs feature latest updates on cancer

Among recent reports that cancer diagnoses and deaths continue to decline in the United States, the same cannot be said about developing countries such as China where smoking, poor diet, water pollution, and environmental problems have caused the nation’s cancer death rate to rise 80 percent over the past 30 years.

In an effort to curb the cancer rates, the country has adopted evidence-based treatment guidelines and continues to strengthen a number of strategic collaborations with the National Comprehensive Cancer Network^® (NCCN^®) as demonstrated by several NCCN programs scheduled throughout China this spring.

The 3^rd Annual Asia Scientific Congress is scheduled for March 24 – 31, 2010 in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou and includes presentations discussing recent updates to the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines^™) for Breast, Colon, Gastric, Kidney, Non-Small Cell Lung, and Rectal Cancers. Last year, the 2^nd Annual Congress attracted more than 3,000 physicians from across China and Asia.

In addition, a Breast Cancer Forum is scheduled for March 27 in Beijing. This forum will provide a platform for physicians from multiple Asian countries to present and share with their colleague Hope S. Rugo, MD of UCSF Medical Center and a member of several NCCN Guidelines Panels, the current perspective of breast cancer treatment in Asia.

Programs continue into the month of April; NCCN Guidelines Symposia on Ovarian Cancer, Cervical Cancer, and Head & Neck Cancers will be held on April 17 in Beijing.

In an effort to expand access to these programs to a larger audience throughout China, a webcast hosted by Andrew D. Zelenetz, MD, PhD, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Chair of the NCCN Guidelines for Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphomas (NHL) was held on March 23 and covered the NCCN Guidelines for NHL.

China has had a long-standing collaboration with NCCN in the development of the Chinese Editions of the NCCN Guidelines - the most authoritative reference for oncology practice in China.

NCCN regularly collaborates with international organizations to create and distribute translations of the NCCN Guidelines, which may include modifications representative of metabolic differences in populations, technological considerations, and regulatory status of agents used in cancer management, such as availabilities of drugs, biologics, devices, and procedures.

In 2009, NCCN approved Chinese Editions of the NCCN Guidelines for Breast, Cervical, Colon, Gastric, Head & Neck, Kidney, Non-Small Cell Lung, Ovarian, and Rectal Cancers, as well as Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphomas, which can be accessed at www.nccn.org/international.