NCCN Guidelines MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides access to NCCN (National Comprehensive Cancer Network) clinical guidelines.

How It Works

This project follows a systematic approach to provide accurate medical guidance:

Problem Analysis: Understands the clinical question or scenario
Guidelines Retrieval: Searches the NCCN index for relevant guidelines
Page-by-Page Reading: Downloads and extracts specific pages from guidelines
Evidence-Based Response: Provides answers based on the extracted content

Note: This system does not use RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) to ensure accuracy. Instead, it reads guidelines directly, which may result in longer response times during index initialization and PDF downloading/reading, but provides more reliable and precise medical guidance.

Features

Guidelines Index: Automatically fetches and maintains an up-to-date index of NCCN guidelines
PDF Download: Downloads NCCN guideline PDFs with authentication support
Content Extraction: Extracts specific pages from PDF documents with layout preservation
Smart Caching: Index is cached for 7 days to minimize server load

Installation

Clone the repository:

git clone <repository-url>
cd NCCN_guidelines_MCP

Install dependencies using uv:

uv sync

Configuration

Configure Client (Note: Supports only agents, such as Cursor, Cline, Claude desktop, etc.)

Important: Claude desktop may warn about insufficient context length when running this MCP.

Add this to your Client configuration:

Configuration with Environment Variables

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nccn-guidelines": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["--directory", "<abslute_direction_of_NCCN_guidelines_MCP>", "run", "server.py"],
      "env": {
        "NCCN_USERNAME": "<your_nccn_username>",
        "NCCN_PASSWORD": "<your_nccn_password>"
      }
    }
  }
}

⚠️ Important Notes

NCCN Account Registration: Please note that the NCCN username and password mentioned above must be registered on the official NCCN website.
First-time Setup: When you first start the MCP server, it needs to generate the YAML index of NCCN guidelines. This process takes 1-2 minutes, so please wait before attempting to use the server.
Response Times: Due to the non-RAG approach for accuracy, expect longer response times during guideline downloading and PDF reading processes.

Prompts

To have better response, please add the prompt in the file of prompt.md to the instruction of your Agent Client before your Question.

Available Tools

get_index: Get the raw contents of the NCCN guidelines index YAML file.
download_pdf: Download NCCN guideline PDFs
- url: PDF URL to download
- filename (optional): Custom filename
- username (optional): NCCN login username (defaults to NCCN_USERNAME env var)
- password (optional): NCCN login password (defaults to NCCN_PASSWORD env var)
extract_content: Extract content from PDF pages
- pdf_path: Path to PDF file
- pages (optional): Comma-separated page numbers (e.g., "1,3,5-7")

Usage Example

Here are some example questions you can ask:

What are the available first-line immunotherapy options for ES-SCLC?
What is the initial chemotherapy for triple-negative breast cancer?
What are the immunotherapy options for neuroendocrine tumors?

NCCN Guidelines MCP Server