What Goes Into an NCI Best Case Series?

Extract

NCI’s Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine guides practitioners in pulling together the required data and materials. Once completed and accepted by NCI, the Best Case Series is presented to the Cancer Advisory Panel for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, which makes recommendations to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and NCI on whether and how the therapy should be studied further. Each step occurs only after satisfactory completion of the previous step.

Step 1. Make introductory call to OCCAM.

Step 2. Provide documentation for each case in the series:

   Clinical history – patient’s signs and symptoms, detailed treatment history, and a statement of any other treatment the patient received before, during, and after the CAM therapy.

   Copies of the pathology reports.

   Copies of medical imaging reports (e.g., x-rays, computed tomography scans, magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound scans).

Step 3. Send original radiology films and pathology slides.

Step 4. Complete face-to-face presentation of Best Case Series to the Cancer Advisory Panel for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.