(November 2013) The University of Colorado Cancer Center last spring became a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), an elite group of 23 centers that sets the standards of care used by oncologists in the United States and abroad.

The NCCN guidelines, which are based on the most current, evidence-based understanding of the diseases, play an important role in insurance coverage, policy decisions and evaluating the quality of cancer care hospitals provide.

The NCCN guidelines are overseen by panels of 25 to 30 medical experts drawn from member institutions. CU Cancer Center will be nominating its experts to these panels and will help shape the blueprints for how to treat cancer patients.

“We have always striven to provide today’s best cancer treatments in an effective, compassionate and ethical way,” says Dan Theodorescu, MD, PhD, director of the CU Cancer Center. “Now the research and treatments we develop and test at CU Cancer Center will influence how the thousands of independent cancer clinics around the country treat their patients.”