Posted By: News-Medical in Medical Procedure News
Published: Tuesday, 17-Aug-2004
The American Society of Clinical Oncology has developed a set of recommendations to address whether patients who have had successful surgery for Stage II colon cancer should be offered adjuvant chemotherapy in routine clinical practice.
The guideline, published in the August 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, states that the routine use of adjuvant chemotherapy for medically fit, average-risk patients with Stage II colon cancer is not recommended. Clinical trials have not established with certainty a significant degree of clinical benefit for adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with Stage II colon cancer, although most trials show a small benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy.
Specifically, patients who receive adjuvant chemotherapy have about a 4% to 5% greater chance of survival five years after surgery, compared with patients who had surgery alone. The exact benefit is not known with certainty because not enough Stage II patients have been included in clinical trials involving this group of patients only.
Article from News-Medical.Net
Posted by gruwell at August 18, 2004 7:41 AM