The National Comprehensive Cancer Network published guidelines that provide step-by-step information on best practices in evaluating patients for hematopoietic cell transplantation and managing complications afterwards.
This type of specialized treatment is increasingly common, occurring approximately 22,000 times a year in the United States in people with various malignancies, most commonly for blood-related cancers.
“The current version of the guidelines addresses both pre-transplant evaluation and the management of a common complication: graft versus host disease,” NCCN Guidelines panel chair for HCT, Ayman A. Saad, professor of clinical medicine at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center—James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, said in a statement.
“Given the diversity of practice and expertise, we believe these guidelines will provide a pivotal tool for learning about the continuously updated therapy landscape in HCT. We hope this will help streamline clinical practices and educate new generations of physicians-in-training,” Saad said.
The NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology for hematopoietic cell transplantation provide recommendations on how to evaluate a potential transplant recipient to
determine if the patient is an appropriate candidate for the procedure, and how to best manage different manifestations of post-transplant GVHD. They reflect the latest evidence and consensus from foremost experts across the 28 leading academic cancer centers that comprise NCCN, including hematologists/oncologists, transplant-specific practitioners, and infectious disease specialists.
The NCCN Guidelines for Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation are available free-of-charge for non-commercial use at NCCN.org and via the Virtual Library of NCCN Guidelines app. NCCN will continue expanding blood cancer resources through continuous updates to the HCT guidelines, along with upcoming new NCCN Guidelines for Histiocytosis, Myeloid/Lymphoid Neoplasms, Pediatric B-Cell Lymphomas, and Pediatric Hodgkin Lymphoma.
