Newswise — PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA [July 12, 2022] — Today, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) published new NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®) for Pediatric Central Nervous System (CNS) Cancers. This is now the fifth current NCCN Guidelines® to focus on childrens’ cancers, following recent publications of evidence-based, expert consensus guidelines for Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, Pediatric Aggressive Mature B-Cell Lymphomas, Pediatric Hodgkin Lymphoma, and Wilms Tumors. Though rare, pediatric brain tumors are the second-most-common type of pediatric malignancy after leukemia and are the leading cause of cancer-related death in children.[1] [2]
“I think about these families and everything they go through, and I know we’re going to keep working every day to make things better for them,” said Anita Mahajan, MD, Mayo Clinic, Vice-Chair of the NCCN Guidelines Panel for Pediatric CNS Cancers. “These NCCN Guidelines, covering high-grade gliomas, are an important start. They consolidate the complicated information that’s needed across interdisciplinary teams, including pediatric oncologists/neuro-oncologists, pediatric radiation oncologists, pathologists, and pediatric neurosurgeons, so they are all ready to work together to provide the most effective diagnosis and treatment.”
Dr. Mahajan continued: “We’re planning to expand the guidelines to include other CNS tumor types. Right now, the science is advancing as we learn more about how to differentiate and characterize these tumors. In the future, with more trial results coming in, we anticipate an increase in personalized medicine with treatments targeted to the specific patient and tumor.”
