There are many guidelines for breast cancer treatment. We recommend guidelines from
three groups:
- Contact the National
Cancer Institute (NCI) to get a copy of their breast cancer guidelines. These
guidelines are part of NCI's Physician Data Query (PDQ), a cancer information database.
Also, in November 2000, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and NCI published a paper
called, "Consensus Statement on Adjuvant Therapy for Breast Cancer." Adjuvant
therapy is treatment breast cancer patients get after surgery.) This paper tells what
NIH/NCI recommends for treating non-metastatic breast cancer. Contact NCI for a copy of
this paper.
- You can also contact the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN)
to get a copy of their breast cancer guidelines. NCCN is made up of many of the leading
cancer centers in the country.
- The Agency
for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has an Effective Health Care Program that
researches different treatments and clinical practices. The Effective Health Care Program
summarizes what is known about whether a specific treatment or clinical practice helps a
specific health condition. These findings can then serve as a basis for developing
guidelines. AHRQ also supports more than a dozen evidence-based practice centers (EPC)
around the country that develop evidence reports and technology assessments. The Blue Cross and
Blue Shield Association (BCBS) Technology Evaluation Center is an EPC and creates
evidence-based technology assessments. Technology assessments are similar to guidelines.
Sometimes new technologies are used in breast cancer care before they have been studied
for effectiveness. Gene expression profiling is an
example. Other times technologies that help patients with other health conditions are
applied to breast cancer care before they have been shown to help breast cancer patients.
BCBS has a research program to judge the effectiveness of such technologies. They
summarize the evidence and their recommendations in reports for consumers. Contact AHRQ or BCBS to
learn more about their evidence reports on breast cancer treatments, technology, and
clinical practices.
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