A research team at Yonsei Cancer Center has recently revised the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), an international cancer standard care guideline, with its new research.

NCCN is a nonprofit organization consisting of 27 cancer centers in the U.S. Centers in the alliance includes the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center. The National Cancer Institute designated most of the cancer center in the alliance as a comprehensive cancer center.

Professor Cho Byung-chul and Kim Hye-ryun

About 97 percent of U.S. cancer patients follow the guideline announced by the organization, while most of the chemotherapy doctors in the world also refer to the guideline when treating patients.

The research, led by Professors Cho Byung-chul and Kim Hye-ryun, announced the world’s first results on the "Ceritinib" efficacy in treating "ROS1 mutant lung cancer", a type of intractable lung cancer.

Clinical studies conducted at 10 member hospitals, including Yonsei Cancer Center, found that patients treated with Ceritinib showed a response rate of 62 percent, while the duration of treatment response continued for 21 months.

The research also confirmed that the progression-free survival (PFS) was 19.3 months, comparable to "Crizotinib," a known standard anticancer drug.

NCCN plans to apply the research results from the team as a new treatment from next month. Until now, even though ROS1 mutant lung cancer accounts for 3 percent of the total cancer patients, the organization had no alternative treatment except Crizotinib.

"The revision of the NCCN Clinical Practice Guideline with clinical research data conducted by domestic researchers indicates that the level of cancer treatment and research reliability in Korea is at a global level,” Cho said.

The results of the study were published in the May edition of “Journal of Clinical Oncology,” one of the most influential oncology-related journals.

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