Lung cancer goes online
January 10, 2013
IN the ever increasing world of
online health it is perhaps not
surprising that the Cancer Council
Australia has just released the new
clinical practice guidelines for the
treatment of lung cancer in an
electronic ‘wiki’ format.
The move marks the first update
to the guidelines in eight years,
with the guide designed to assist
healthcare professionals and their
patients to make informed
treatment choices based on the
most current research available.
At present, lung cancer is the fifth
most common cancer in Australia,
and whilst survival rates have
improved, the five-year relative
survival remains relatively low at 14%.
According to the Cancer Council,
this fact highlights the “importance
of appropriate referral to multidisciplinary
teams and evidencebased
treatment to improve
survival outcomes”.
The Clinical Practice Guidelines
for the Treatment of Lung Cancer,
commissioned and co-funded by
Cancer Australia and developed by
Cancer Council Australia, revise the
treatment section of the 2004
“Clinical practice guidelines for the
prevention, diagnosis and
management of lung cancer”.
Organised according to disease
stage, the guidelines cover
questions such as: What is the role
of radiotherapy in the treatment of
operable stage I non-small cell lung
cancer? What is the optimal secondline
therapy in patients with extensive
stage small cell lung cancer?
The guidelines also cover questions
such as: What is the role of
palliative care in symptom
management for patients with lung
cancer?
Speaking about what has been
hailed as a “game changing” wiki
format, Professor David Ball, from
the Peter MacCallum Cancer
Centre, and Chair of the Lung
Cancer Guidelines Working Party,
said the web-based electronic
format allows editing and updating
by expert committees as new
evidence becomes available.
“We invite readers who become
aware of new evidence to create a
personal account and make
comments online in the appropriate
section, so that the working party
can consider whether it should
change any of the
recommendations,” he said.
To view the new guidelines visit
http://wiki.cancer.org.au/australia/
Main_Page.
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