NCCN Guidelines^® are considered the gold standard for clinical direction and policy in cancer management and are the most thorough and frequently-updated clinical practice guidelines available in any area of medicine. The evidence-based recommendations are formulated by more than 1,700 top experts from across the 32 leading cancer centers that are part of NCCN, alongside input from patient advocates.

NCCN Guidelines for Patients are directly based on the clinical practice guidelines that inform health care providers all over the world on the best way to manage cancer prevention, screening, treatment, and survivorship. The patient guidelines contain the same unbiased expert guidance as the clinical versions, but are presented in an easy-to-read format—with clear language, charts, images, a glossary of medical terms, and suggested questions to ask during appointments. An independent, peer-reviewed study published in Current Urology on prostate cancer found the NCCN Guidelines for Patients to be among the most trustworthy resources for people seeking information online about their cancer. In 2021, the NCCN Guidelines for Patients were downloaded more than 2.1 million times worldwide.

The library of NCCN Guidelines for Patients currently contains 65 different books, featuring tailored recommendations for more than 50 types of cancer—including breast, colon, lung, and prostate. There are also books on supportive care topics like managing cancer-related distress, nausea and vomiting, side-effects from immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, and special considerations for adolescents and young adults across all cancer types. NCCN also provides patient guidelines devoted to detection, prevention, and risk reduction, including colorectal, lung, and breast cancer screening.

The patient guidelines for breast cancer screening and diagnosis and the guidelines for breast cancer treatment address differences in cultural and individual identity—especially in relation to sex assigned at birth and gender—and take differing levels of health literacy into account. Plain language, inclusive and bias-free language, and representative photos are utilized. Gender-exclusive pronouns are omitted. NCCN Guidelines for Patients have been translated into more than 20 additional languages, including Spanish and Ukrainian, to empower patients and caregivers around the world.

The NCCN Animations and Webinars for Patients complement the NCCN Guidelines for Patients. NCCN has provided more than a dozen free webinars to help inform patients and caregivers since 2020. A collection of brief animated videos tackles topics such as “How to Talk to Your Doctor About Metastatic Breast Cancer.”

The NCCN Guidelines for Patients are available for free digital download at NCCN.org/patientguidelines or via the NCCN Patient Guides for Cancer App. Printed versions are available for free while supplies last via NCCN’s online catalog, or for a nominal fee through Amazon.