NCCN Updates Breast Cancer and Breast Cancer Risk Reduction ...( ...),Health

NCCN announces new updates to the NCCN Guidelines for Breast Cancer and Breast Cancer Risk Reduction Guidelines. Noteworthy additions include new recommendations on when to use MRIs in breast cancer evaluations, statements discouraging the use of PET/CT scanning for evaluative purposes, and new cosmetic recommendations for women undergoing reconstructive surgery.

FORT WASHINGTON, Pa., Feb. 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) announces important updates to the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology(TM) for Breast Cancer and Breast Cancer Risk Reduction. These changes reflect leading developments in the treatment of patients with breast cancer and represent the standard of clinical policy in oncology in both community and academic settings.

Notable diagnostic additions to the NCCN Guidelines include a recommendation for genetic counseling if the patient is high risk for hereditary breast cancer, as well as six new recommendations detailing when MRIs may be helpful in breast cancer evaluations.

Conversely, the updated NCCN Guidelines for Breast Cancer state that PET/CT scanning is not recommended for evaluation of newly diagnosed patients with early stage disease except in those clinical situations where other staging studies are equivocal or suspicious, and even in these situations that biopsy is recommended. The NCCN Guideline Panel Members for Breast Cancer note that although there is limited evidence demonstrating the utility of PET/CT scan in the staging of patients, they consider biopsy to be more likely to provide useful staging information.

The updated NCCN Guidelines continue to recognize bisphosphonates as the preferred intervention to treat osteoporosis in women with breast cancer, while the use of estrogen, progesterone, or selective estrogen receptor modulators is discouraged.

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