Cancer care in the Philippines is about to get its own playbook

For Filipino oncologists like Dr. Hiyasmin Alejandro, treating cancer has meant adapting foreign guidelines on the fly — soon they'll have ones written for the Philippines. The US-based National Comprehensive Cancer Network is working with the Philippine Society of Medical Oncology, the Department of Health and local specialists to adapt world-standard treatment guidelines to Philippine realities, covering ten cancers including breast, lung, colon, cervical and ovarian. The plans were laid out at this week's oncology summit in Manila, with a high-level meeting on folding the guidelines into national policy under the country's cancer control law. They'll be published free for any clinician to use.