The National Comprehensive Cancer Network, a not-for-profit alliance of leading United States cancer centers, announced a new collaboration with the Institute of Hematology and Transfusion Medicine in Poland (IHIT), and the Alliance For Innovation—Polish-American Foundation (AFI).
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The three organizations have signed an agreement enabling clinicians to share their established expertise and international experience in order to improve quality of care and outcomes for patients with hematologic malignancies in Poland and around the world.
"This new agreement highlights our commitment to continue advancing our ongoing collaboration with Polish colleagues to standardize and improve how cancers are managed," said Robert W. Carlson, MD, Chief Executive Officer, NCCN.
"The Institute of Hematology and Transfusion Medicine in Poland is the leading medical and research hospital in Poland for hematology; it serves as a national clinical and diagnostic reference center. Together, we can make sure more people with blood cancers receive region-appropriate treatment based on the latest evidence and expert consensus."
This new agreement builds on a multi-year collaboration between NCCN, the Marie Curie-Sklodowska National Research Institute of Oncology, Republic of Poland Ministry of Health, and AFI to improve country-specific guidelines for solid tumor diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in Poland, based on the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines) —as called for in Poland's National Cancer Strategy.
NCCN Guidelines are the recognized standard for clinical direction and policy in cancer management and the most thorough and frequently-updated clinical practice guidelines available in any area of medicine.
They have been translated, adapted, and harmonized in collaboration with local and regional experts, advocates, and policymakers across Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), the Caribbean, Asia, South America, and Europe, in order to make them more relevant and accessible to patients and care providers worldwide.
The initial work with Poland launched in 2021; to date, the groups have co-developed Polish NCCN Guidelines Adaptations for: central nervous system cancers, cervical cancer, colon cancer, head and neck cancers, and ovarian cancer.
NCCN's resources for cancer patients and providers are widely accessed and utilized free-of-charge around the world. Nearly half of the 1.7 million registered users who view NCCN Guidelines at NCCN.org or via the Virtual Library of NCCN Guidelines app are located outside of the U.S. ■