The National Comprehensive Cancer Center Network (NCCN) guidelines on the management of venous thromboembolism in cancer patients

The National Comprehensive Cancer Center Network (NCCN) is a consortium of twenty one of the leading academic cancer institutes in the United States. In 2008, NCCN member institutions provided cancer care to over 160,000 new patients. To meet the consortium’s goal of providing continuously improving evidencebased cancer care, the NCCN has organized multidisciplinary committees to develop and annually update treatment guidelines for each individual cancer site as well as for important supportive care issues faced by cancer patients. Since its inception, the NCCN has developed 42 cancer site-specific practice guidelines and 10 supportive care guidelines. In October, 2005, the NCCN convened a multidisciplinary panel from its member institutions chaired by Dr. Lawrence Wagman to develop an evidence-based guideline outlining the recommended management of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in the cancer patient. Prior to the committee’s first meeting, NCCN network staff performed a comprehensive search of the English language literature for studies investigating the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of VTE that was provided to panel members prior to the first consensus conference for their review. Panel members were encouraged to supplement the literature review with additional publications or data they deemed necessary for the committee to consider during the guideline development process. During the consensus conference, the evidence on each VTE management topic was reviewed by panel members and a draft guideline was developed. Guideline recommendations were graded according to the amount of available evidence to support the recommendation and the degree of consensus among panel