Acupuncture: National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Conference statement.
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Medicine is increasingly complex, a reality created by the explosion of knowledge during the last 50 years. The cost of applying this knowledge creates a daunting economic challenge. As a result, there has been a profusion of guidelines intended to influence medical practice. This report explores the interrelated issues and concepts that impact the value and success of guidelines. These include medical quality and error, compliance, and the impact on outcomes in an evidence-based medicine context. Lessons learned from previous guidelines must be understood in relation to human behavior. Legal implications of the guidelines must be considered because both an increase and a decrease in liability can be anticipated. Many products have been labeled "advocacy guidelines" with a negative context. They are believed to express motivation rather than optimizing care. The ideal of professionalism is challenged, and there is potential for the growing use of guidelines in enforcing punitive actions. Constructive experience has emphasized the appropriate required elements for practice guidelines: a systematic review of the literature, an assessment of the volume and level of the evidence, and development of a review process by an appropriate multidisciplinary group for consistency, clinical impact, and resource implications leading to clearly stated and reasonable recommendations. The dissemination of guidelines, beyond conventional publication in a journal, will impact the success of the intended outcomes. The exploitation of electronic avenues, including the Internet and the evolving interactive electronic medical record, seems to be essential for future success in these endeavors.
OBJECTIVE: To provide health care providers, patients, and the general public with a current consensus on various issues related to the use of adjuvant therapy for breast cancer. PARTICIPANTS: A nonfederal, nonadvocate, 14-member panel representing the fields of oncology, radiology, surgery, pathology, statistics, public health, health policy, and the public; 30 experts in medical oncology, molecular oncology, biostatistics, epidemiology, surgical oncology, and clinical trials who presented data to the consensus panel; a conference audience of approximately 1,000. EVIDENCE: The literature was searched using MEDLINE and an extensive bibliography of references was provided to the panel. Experts prepared abstracts with relevant citations from the literature. Scientific evidence was given precedence over clinical anecdotal experience. CONSENSUS PROCESS: The panel, answering predefined questions, developed their conclusions based on the scientific evidence presented in open forum and the scientific literature. The panel composed a draft statement that was read in its entirety and circulated to the experts and the audience for comment. Thereafter, the panel resolved conflicting recommendations and released a revised statement at the end of the conference. The panel finalized the revisions within a few weeks after the conference. The draft statement was made available on the World Wide Web immediately following its release at the conference and was updated with the panel's final revisions. CONCLUSIONS: During the past 10 years, substantial progress has been made in the treatment of invasive breast cancer. For the first time, breast cancer mortality rates are decreasing in the United States. Refinements of adjuvant treatment have contributed to this advance. Generally accepted prognostic and predictive factors include age, tumor size, lymph node status, histological tumor type, grade, mitotic rate, and hormonal receptor status. Novel technologies, such as tissue and expression microarrays and proteomics, hold exciting potential. Progress, however, will depend on proper design and analysis of clinical and pathological investigations. Decisions regarding adjuvant hormonal therapy should be based on the presence of hormone receptor protein in tumor tissues. Adjuvant hormonal therapy should be offered only to women whose tumors express hormone receptor protein. Because adjuvant polychemotherapy improves survival, it should be recommended to the majority of women with localized breast cancer regardless of nodal, menopausal, or hormone receptor status. The inclusion of anthracyclines in adjuvant chemotherapy regimens produces a small but statistically significant improvement in survival over non-anthracycline-containing regimens. Available data are currently inconclusive regarding the use of taxanes in adjuvant treatment of node-positive breast cancer. The use of adjuvant dose-intensive chemotherapy regimens in high-risk breast cancer and of taxanes in node-negative breast cancer should be restricted to randomized trials. Ongoing studies evaluating these treatment strategies should be supported to determine if they have a role in adjuvant treatment. Studies to date have included few patients older than 70 years. There is a critical need for trials to evaluate the role of adjuvant chemotherapy in these women. There is evidence that women with a high risk of locoregional tumor recurrence after mastectomy benefit from postoperative radiotherapy. This high-risk group includes women with four or more positive lymph nodes or an advanced primary cancer. Currently, the role of post-mastectomy radiotherapy for patients with one to three positive lymph nodes remains uncertain and should be tested in a randomized controlled trial. Individual patients differ in the importance they place on the risks and benefits of adjuvant treatments. Quality-of-life needs to be evaluated in selected randomized clinical trials to examine the impact of the major acute and long-term side effects of adjuvant treatments, particularly premature menopause, weight gain, mild memory loss, and fatigue. Methods to support shared decision-making between patients and their physicians have been successful in trials; they need to be tailored for diverse populations and should be tested for broader dissemination.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, National Institutes of Health, convened a workshop entitled The Next Step: Protocol Development for Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation for Pediatric Rheumatic Disease, June 2000, co-chaired by Drs. Karyl Barron and Carol Wallace. The goal of the workshop was to focus on the scientific rationale for stem cell transplantation therapy in the pediatric diseases, unique aspects of this therapy in the pediatric rheumatic diseases, transplantation issues and options, regulatory issues, and development of a DNA repository for these diseases.
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OBJECTIVE: To provide health care providers, patients, and the general public with a responsible assessment of currently available data regarding screening for, and management of. phenylketonuria (PKU). PARTICIPANTS: A non-Federal, non-advocate, 14-member panel representing the fields of pediatrics, genetics, human development, public policy, nursing, molecular physiology, and including patient representatives. In addition, 19 experts in pediatrics, medical genetics, psychology, pediatric neurology, biochemical and molecular genetics, and gene therapy presented data to the panel and to a conference audience of more than 300. EVIDENCE: The literature was searched using MEDLINE and an extensive bibliography of references was provided to the panel. Experts prepared abstracts with relevant citations from the literature. Scientific evidence was given precedence over clinical anecdotal experience. CONSENSUS PROCESS: The panel, answering predefined questions, developed their conclusions based on the scientific evidence presented in open forum and the scientific literature. The panel composed a draft statement that was read in its entirety and circulated to the experts and the audience for comment. Thereafter, the panel resolved conflicting recommendations and released a revised statement at the end of the conference. The panel finalized the revisions within a few weeks after the conference. The draft statement was made available on the World Wide Web immediately following its release at the conference and was updated with the panel's final revisions. CONCLUSIONS: Genetic testing for PKU has been in place for almost 40 years and has been very successful in the prevention of severe mental retardation in thousands of children and adults. Metabolic control is necessary across the lifespan of individuals with PKU. A comprehensive, multidisciplinary, integrated system is required for the delivery of care to individuals with PKU. Greatly needed are consistency and coordination among screening, treatment, data collection, and patient support programs. There should be equal access to culturally sensitive, age-appropriate treatment programs. Ethically sound, specific policies for storage, ownership, and use in future studies of archived samples remaining from PKU testing should be established. Research into the pathophysiology of PKU and relationship to genetic, neural, and behavioral variation is strongly encouraged. Uniform policies need to be established to remove from the individual and the family financial barriers to the acquisition of medical foods and modified low-protein foods, as well as to provide access to support services required to maintain metabolic control in individuals with PKU. Research on nondietary alternatives to treatment of PKU is strongly encouraged. To achieve optimal statistical power, as well as cross-cultural applicability, it will be beneficial to use data acquired via national and international collaboration.
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OBJECTIVE: Our goal was to provide health-care providers, patients, and the general public with an assessment of currently available data regarding the use of adjuvant therapy for breast cancer. PARTICIPANTS: The participants included a non-Federal, non-advocate, 14-member panel representing the fields of oncology, radiology, surgery, pathology, statistics, public health, and health policy as well as patient representatives. In addition, 30 experts in medical oncology, radiation oncology, biostatistics, epidemiology, surgical oncology, and clinical trials presented data to the panel and to a conference audience of 1000. EVIDENCE: The literature was searched with the use of MEDLINE for January 1995 through July 2000, and an extensive bibliography of 2230 references was provided to the panel. Experts prepared abstracts for their conference presentations with relevant citations from the literature. Evidence from randomized clinical trials and evidence from prospective studies were given precedence over clinical anecdotal experience. CONSENSUS PROCESS: The panel, answering predefined questions, developed its conclusions based on the evidence presented in open forum and the scientific literature. The panel composed a draft statement, which was read in its entirety and circulated to the experts and the audience for comment. Thereafter, the panel resolved conflicting recommendations and released a revised statement at the end of the conference. The panel finalized the revisions within a few weeks after the conference. The draft statement was made available on the World Wide Web immediately after its release at the conference and was updated with the panel's final revisions. The statement is available at http://consensus.nih.gov. CONCLUSIONS: The panel concludes that decisions regarding adjuvant hormonal therapy should be based on the presence of hormone receptor protein in tumor tissues. Adjuvant hormonal therapy should be offered only to women whose tumors express hormone receptor protein. Because adjuvant polychemotherapy improves survival, it should be recommended to the majority of women with localized breast cancer regardless of lymph node, menopausal, or hormone receptor status. The inclusion of anthracyclines in adjuvant chemotherapy regimens produces a small but statistically significant improvement in survival over non-anthracycline-containing regimens. Available data are currently inconclusive regarding the use of taxanes in adjuvant treatment of lymph node-positive breast cancer. The use of adjuvant dose-intensive chemotherapy regimens in high-risk breast cancer and of taxanes in lymph node-negative breast cancer should be restricted to randomized trials. Ongoing studies evaluating these treatment strategies should be supported to determine if such strategies have a role in adjuvant treatment. Studies to date have included few patients older than 70 years. There is a critical need for trials to evaluate the role of adjuvant chemotherapy in these women. There is evidence that women with a high risk of locoregional tumor recurrence after mastectomy benefit from postoperative radiotherapy. This high-risk group includes women with four or more positive lymph nodes or an advanced primary cancer. Currently, the role of postmastectomy radiotherapy for patients with one to three positive lymph nodes remains uncertain and should be tested in a randomized controlled trial. Individual patients differ in the importance they place on the risks and benefits of adjuvant treatments. Quality of life needs to be evaluated in selected randomized clinical trials to examine the impact of the major acute and long-term side effects of adjuvant treatments, particularly premature menopause, weight gain, mild memory loss, and fatigue. Methods to support shared decision-making between patients and their physicians have been successful in trials; they need to be tailored for diverse populations and should be tested for broader dissemination.
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Adjuvant endocrine therapy is a vitally important modality for treatment of women with resected hormone-sensitive breast cancer as indicated by the presence of estrogen and/or progesterone receptors in the tumor. It is not recommended in those patients whose tumors lack these hormone receptors. Tamoxifen for 5 years has been shown to reduce the risk of recurrence and death irrespective of menopausal status or use of adjuvant chemotherapy. In postmenopausal women, the major research emphasis relates to the use of third-generation aromatase inhibitors in sequence with, instead of, and in combination with tamoxifen. In premenopausal women, ovarian ablation/suppression has demonstrated efficacy comparable with some chemotherapy regimens, but its role in women receiving chemotherapy remains to be determined.
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The neurofibromatosis (NF) represent a set of conditions having different clinical manifestations, prognosis and inheritance. It has been presented--on clinical grounds--seven types of NF, but for only two of these National Institute of Health Consensus Development Conference (NIHCDC) advent a set of diagnostic criteria. The genes responsible for NF1 and NF2 were mapped to the long arm of chromosome 17 (17q11.2) and respectively 22 (22q11.2), and their protein product (neurofibromin and respectively merlin or schwanomin) was identified. Recent studies are proved that NF1 and NF2 genes act as a tumour suppressor gene. Up to now, only a limited number of mutations in these genes have been characterized but even in these cases the genotype/fenotype correlation has not provided enough information to allow speculation on the etiologic role NF1 or NF2 mutations might play in the variant forms of NF. Further studies are required to elucidate the genes functions and mutation spectrum. This should provide a framework for the molecular classification and diagnosis and the development of new therapy for NF.
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Extraction of third molars is the operation most frequently performed by oral and maxillofacial surgeons. The American National Institute of Health (1979) and the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (1993) have organised consensus conferences to systematically analyse the scientific evidence and provide official guidelines for the management of third molars. However, some clinical aspects are still controversial: indications for preventive extraction, early extraction, prognosis of impacted teeth, continuous follow-up, relationship with anterior crowding and temporo-mandibular disorders. This article reviews the conclusions from the consensus conferences and integrates them with more recent data. The actual trend seems to justify a more conservative clinical approach rather than an aggressive extraction policy.
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