NCCN Guidelines® vs CARTOX

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®), is pleased to present the Virtual Library of NCCN Guidelines® app formatted for iPhone & iPad. This easy-to-use and convenient format will further assist health care professionals in their implementation of the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®), thus improving the quality and effectiveness of care provided to patients with cancer. NCCN is a not-for-profit alliance of leading cancer centers devoted to patient care, research, and education. NCCN is dedicated to improving and facilitating quality, effective, efficient, and accessible cancer care so patients can live better lives. Through the leadership and expertise of clinical professionals at NCCN Member Institutions, NCCN develops resources that present valuable information to the numerous stakeholders in the health care delivery system. By defining and advancing high-quality cancer care, NCCN promotes the importance of continuous quality improvement and recognizes the significance of creating clinical practice guidelines appropriate for use by patients, clinicians, and other health care decision-makers around the world. Over the past 25 years, NCCN has developed an integrated suite of tools to improve the quality of cancer care. The NCCN Guidelines® document evidence-based, consensus-driven management to ensure that all patients receive preventive, diagnostic, treatment, and supportive services that are most likely to lead to optimal outcomes. The NCCN Guidelines are a comprehensive set of guidelines detailing the sequential management decisions and interventions that apply to 97 percent of cancer cases in the United States. In addition, separate guidelines relate to major prevention and screening topics and another set of pathways focuses on the major supportive care areas. The NCCN Guidelines provide recommendations based on the best evidence available at the time they are derived. Because new data are published continuously, it is essential that the NCCN Guidelines also be continuously updated and revised to reflect new data and new clinical information. The intent of the NCCN Guidelines is to assist in the decision-making process of individuals involved in cancer care—including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, payers, patients and their families—with the ultimate goal of improving patient care and outcomes. The NCCN Guidelines provide recommendations for appropriate care for most but not all patients; however, individual patient circumstances must be considered when applying these recommendations. Visit NCCN.org to learn more about the NCCN Guidelines as well as other NCCN Content.

Cellular therapies can be associated with unique, acute toxicities which can be severe or even fatal if not identified early and treated appropriately. Cytokine Release Syndrome (CRS), the most commonly observed toxicity can range in severity from low-grade constitutional symptoms to high-grade syndrome associated with life-threatening multi-organ disfunction. Neurotoxicity, originally termed CRES (CAR-Related Encephalopathy Syndrome) and now updated to ICANS (Immune effector Cell-Associated Neurotoxicity Syndrome) is the second most-common adverse even and can occur concurrently with CRS. A multi-disciplinary working group was formed to address safety issues for patients receiving cellular therapy which led to the development of new grading methods and treatment algorithms that have been incorporated into the CARTOX mobile app. The CARTOX mobile app assists with grading toxicities, managing toxicities and assists with recommendations regarding appropriate antimicrobial prophylaxis for patients who have received immune effector cell therapy. Users are more easily able to determine if the patient is having cytokine release syndrome or neurotoxicity and to grade those toxicities. Intended audience: Clinicians (physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, pharmacists, nurses) who treat/care for patients receiving immune effector cells.