Categories of Preference included for recommendations within NCCN Guidelines

Sep 15 2017

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network^® (NCCN^®) has instituted Categories of Preference for recommendations within the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines^®). Initially, Categories of Preference will be published for drugs and biologics recommended within the NCCN Guidelines^® for Multiple Myeloma. Additional cancer types are forthcoming.

All recommendations in the NCCN Guidelines are considered appropriate. The Categories of Preference are:

• Preferred intervention: Interventions that are based on superior efficacy, safety, and evidence; and, when appropriate, affordability
• Other recommended intervention: Other interventions that may be somewhat less efficacious, more toxic, or based on less mature data; or significantly less affordable for similar outcomes
• Useful in certain circumstances: Other interventions that may be used for selected patient populations (defined with recommendation)

Multiple NCCN Guidelines have historically included preferred and other recommended interventions; Categories of Preference will provide consistency in guidance across Guidelines for shared decision-making.

The goals of the NCCN Categories of Preference are to stratify Guidelines to clarify panel and institutional preference for interventions, to provide guidance to users of Guidelines on which recommendations are considered optimal, and to continue to provide a wide range of recommendations to meet varying clinical circumstances and patient preferences.

Transparency of NCCN Guidelines and Compendia development is central to the philosophy, policies, and procedures of NCCN. NCCN posts the policies and processes for developing and maintaining the NCCN Guidelines. These policies are available to the public on the NCCN website. Identification of newly published research, NCCN Member Institution review, external stakeholder submissions, and panel review occur on an ongoing basis with at least annual review performed for NCCN Guidelines for each disease.