The NCCN 2nd Annual Asia Scientific Congress concluded with resounding success, and heralded the beginning of new co-operations towards the furtherance of optimal evidence-based oncology practice in the region. The Congress, organized by NCCN’s official representative in Asia, EMD Scientific Communication, was held on March 28 and 29, 2009, at the JW Marriott Hotel in Beijing. It was attended by more than 3,000 doctors from all over China and Asia, and saw the debut of NCCN Asia Panels.

The NCCN delegation of 15 led by their Chief Executive Officer, Dr. William T. McGivney, and Senior Vice President of Clinical Information and Publications, Ms Joan McClure, brought the highlights of the NCCN 14th Annual Conference held 2 weeks earlier in Florida, USA, to Beijing. During the program-packed 2-day meeting, NCCN experts updated participants on the latest in NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in OncologyTM and the happenings in the areas of breast cancer, chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), colon and rectal cancers, gastric cancer, head and neck cancers, kidney cancer, and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). China and Asian experts also had ample opportunity to share and exchange experiences with their counterparts from the USA.

This year’s program highlights included remote live presentations and surgery demonstration, as well as highly interactive sessions with expert panel discussion on challenging case-study presentations by young oncologists from leading hospitals in China and Asia. This year also saw the increased active participation of Asian experts: for example, of the two live surgery demonstration in kidney cancer session, one of them was by Professor Koon Ho Rha from the Yonsei University College of Medicine, Korea. In addition, both the Breast Cancer and Kidney Cancer Asia Forums provided a platform for Asian clinicians from India, Indonesia, Korea and Taiwan, to present and share the current Asian perspective of oncology practice.

In order that the program content could benefit a greater audience, especially for those who were unable to attend the Congress in Beijing, the main sessions of the Congress were webcast live, with facilities that allowed the remote audience to interact with faculty members and participate during the question and answer sessions. Thanks to modern technology, this brought the actual total number of participants close to 4,000.

In conjunction with the Congress, NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in OncologyTM China Edition Panel Meetings were held with the NCCN delegates to update the China editions of the Guidelines. China is in its 4th year of successful collaboration with the NCCN on the development of the China editions of the Guidelines, which have been well-received and have even become the most authoritative reference for oncology practice in China.

Encouraged by the success of the China-NCCN collaboration, the Asia Panels for Breast Cancer, CML, Kidney Cancer and NSCLC which were formed only a few months prior to the Congress, managed to produce discussion drafts for their respective Consensus Statements for their inaugural meetings with the NCCN. Panel members comprise top Asian thought leaders in oncology from China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.

The purpose of the Asia Consensus Statements is to serve as a reference and stepping stone for individual countries in Asia which do not yet have local editions of NCCN guidelines to develop one of their own. In turn, it is the hope of members of the Asian oncology fraternity that relevant parts of the Chinese guidelines, Asia Consensus Statements and future Asian guidelines, such as aspects peculiar to management and treatment of patients of Asian origin would be adopted into the “parent’ NCCN Guidelines.

Activities such as the NCCN Asia Scientific Congress and associated activities are only a small part of NCCN’s ongoing efforts to promote optimal evidence-based oncology practice in Asia – a lot more remains to be done in order to achieve this objective. Dr. Yan Sun, Chairman of the NCCN 2nd Annual Asia Scientific Congress, thus urged fellow colleagues to seriously consider initiating or participating in clinical trials in China whenever possible, in order to continually gather solid data and evidence for their practice and guidelines. This subject on the dire need for more Asian data and hence the need for more Asian clinical trials also never failed being emphasized at every Asia Panel meeting.

The enthusiasm of participants at the Congress and the collegiality of those actively involved were indeed enough for one to believe that the goal of optimal evidence-based oncology practice will no doubt be met.