Seven quality guidelines for breast, colorectal cancer care

Aug 20 2006

The American Society of Clinical Oncology and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network on Tuesday released seven quality guidelines for breast and colorectal cancer care, CQ Today reports.

The guidelines are based on clinical impact, feasibility, potential for improvement, reliability, scientific acceptability and usefulness.

They include post-operative chemotherapy recommendations for people ages 80 and younger; hormonal therapy recommendations for people with tumors one centimeter or larger; and breast radiation therapy recommendations for women ages 70 or younger (CQ Today, 8/17).

According to the guidelines, the recommendations -- three breast cancer-related, two rectal cancer-related, one colon cancer-related and one colorectal cancer-related -- continually will be tested by the organizations and will be updated to reflect the findings of such tests (ASCO/NCCN, "ASCO/NCCN Quality Measures: Breast and Colorectal Cancers," 8/15).