UNMC Eppley Cancer Center to host national cancer symposium

The University of Nebraska Medical Center Eppley Cancer Center today (Oct. 7) will host the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) symposium on “Colon, Rectal and Anal Cancers.”

The symposium runs from 1 to 6:30 p.m., beginning with tours of the Durham Research Center, UNMC’s newest research facility and the site of the NCCN symposium. Ken Cowan, M.D., Ph.D., director of the UNMC Eppley Cancer Center, will give opening remarks. At 2 p.m., William McGivney, Ph.D., chief executive officer of the NCCN, will give an overview of the NCCN guidelines, followed by a series of presentations on the management of anal cancer, locoregional rectal cancer, locoregional colon cancer and management of metastatic colorectal disease. A reception will immediately follow the program.

“We are very excited to host the NCCN’s Colon, Rectal and Anal Cancers symposium,” said Peter Coccia, M.D., the UNMC Eppley Cancer Center at The Nebraska Medical Center member on the NCCN Board of Directors. “We welcome some of the world’s experts in this area to UNMC.”

The symposium will provide evidence-based treatment recommendations for the management of malignancies arising in the lower gastrointestinal tract. This symposium will focus on the clinical data supporting new approaches that have been incorporated into the recommended treatment algorithms.

UNMC’s Jean Grem, M.D., professor of oncology and hematology, UNMC Department of Internal Medicine, is one of the symposium’s featured speakers. Dr. Grem will discuss the management of locoregional colon cancer. Dr. Grem, a nationally recognized expert on gastrointestinal cancer and the area of drug development and evaluation, directs the Gastrointestinal Oncology Program and the Oncology Drug Development Program at UNMC. She recently was invited to join the panel of NCCN experts for cancers arising in the colon, rectal and anus.

She will be joined by faculty members: Yi-Jen Chen, M.D., Ph.D., City of Hope Cancer Center; John Skibber, M.D., The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center; and Alan Venook, M.D., University of California San Francisco Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr. Grem joined UNMC in 2003 after serving as the head gastrointestinal cancer researcher/clinician at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Md. Dr. Grem, who joined the NCI in 1986, was a colleague of Dr. Cowan, who worked at the NCI for 21 years before coming to UNMC in 1999.

The symposium is designed for physicians and other clinical professionals who manage patients with cancer. For more information, visit www.nccn.org.

The NCCN is an alliance of 19 of the world’s leading cancer centers and is an authoritative source of information to help patients and health professionals make informed decisions about cancer care. UNMC is a member of this alliance. Through the collective expertise of its member institutions, the NCCN develops, updates and disseminates a complete library of clinical practice guidelines. These guidelines are the standard for clinical policy in oncology.