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The National Comprehensive Cancer Network and International Symposium on Supportive Care in Oncology

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) held its annual conference in Hollywood, Florida, in March. In this issue of Oncology & Biotech News, we provide a general overview of the meeting and session highlights from the conference, focusing on updated treatment guidelines. The NCCN remains an excellent forum for dissemination of data from academic research and clinical trials. The Annual meeting focused on this as well as quality issues and initiatives related to cancer care and emerging economic challenges related to fiscal issues and oncology business management. In our cover story, we provide some of the more pertinent highlights from the meeting.

Our editors also attended the Sixth International Symposium on Supportive Care in Oncology in New York City in February. Although highly targeted chemotherapeutic agents offer renewed hope to many patients diagnosed with cancers, these new agents bring new challenges in the management of side effects, some of which can become debilitating enough to interfere with cancer treatment. These challenges are also highlighted in this issue as we present all types of oncology information that physicians can implement in their practice setting. Our objective is to provide practical information for the community-based oncologist.

Our departments offer a variety of perspectives, providing not only clinical news, but also reimbursement and managed care and other topics of interest to the community-based oncologist. For example, in each issue we focus on a pharmaceutical or biotech company’s oncology division. In this month’s Physician’s Financial News department, we feature Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a smaller biotech company with a slightly different strategic approach toward competing in the oncology sector. The company has recognized that its lead product, Nexavar, is a multifaceted therapy with a number of potential applications in a wide-ranging variety of cancers. Therefore, the bulk of Onyx’s research and development efforts center upon expanding Nexavar’s potential to the fullest and most complete extent possible.