Clinical Practice Guidelines

ASCO Guideline Update on Chemotherapy for Stage IV Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

The present edition of ASCO's Guideline Update on Chemotherapy for Stage IV Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer includes a new section on biomarkers, a focus on age and performance status, and recommendations regarding several new agents approved by the FDA since 2003.

Recently, the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) published ASCO’s Clinical Practice Guideline Update on the Use of Pharmacologic Interventions Including Tamoxifen, Raloxifene, and Aromatase Inhibition for Breast Cancer Risk Reduction. ASCO first published a guideline on this topic in 1999 and previously updated it in 2002. This update was led by Kala Visvanathan, MD, MHS, of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.

In February 2009, the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) published the ASCO/American Urological Association (AUA) Clinical Practice Guidelines with recommendations on the use of 5-Alpha Reductase Inhibitors (5-ARIs) for chemoprevention of prostate cancer; the Journal also provided an update on the ASCO guideline on the use of chemotherapy and radiotherapy protectants.

Richard Theriault, DO, Chair of the Health Services Committee, discusses the role that Clinical Practice Guidelines play in shaping oncology practice and the Committee’s work in creating them.

In This Issue

Clinical Practice Guidelines