Overview of the National and International Guidelines for Care of Breast Cancer Survivors
Medical management guidelines provide lifelines for busy clinicians trying to determine the best approach for individual patient scenarios. By identifying, collating, reviewing, and categorizing published results, guidelines save time and provide valuable service to clinicians. In order to effectively use any individual guideline, users must be aware of the assumptions and premises upon which individual recommendations are based. Furthermore, guideline users must recognize that the focus of guidelines is variable, with different topics addressed differently, or not at all, in different guidelines. This chapter provides a high-level review of national, and to a more limited extent, international guidelines relevant to breast cancer survivors.
