Esophageal carcinoma is one of the most common human cancers in China. Radiotherapy plays an important role in combination therapy of esophageal carcinoma. With regret, there is still no unified standard for the treatment of esophageal carcinoma in China, and there are many controversies in the treatment regimens, indications, methods and efficacy. Clinically, the clinical practice guidelines of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) of the United States were often consulted, but the data of them were mainly from the patients from Europe and America, and they might not be applicable for Chinese patients. In order to standardize clinical process of radiotherapy for esophageal carcinoma in China, the Esophageal Carcinoma Cooperative Group of Radiation Oncology Society of Chinese Medical Association wrote a consensus and controversies on the radiotherapy for esophageal carcinoma (draft) after years of research and discussion. We hope it be tried out and discussed with advice and valuable suggestions, in order to accelerate the process of standardization of esophageal carcinoma treatment in China.

To design clear guidelines for the staging and follow-up of patients with ovarian cancer, and to provide the radiologist with a framework for use in multidisciplinary conferences.

"The American College of Radiology seeks and encourages collaboration with other organizations on the development of the ACR Appropriateness Criteria through society representation on expert panels. Participation by representatives from collaborating societies on the expert panel does not necessarily imply society endorsement of the final document."

To provide recommendations for the treatment of cutaneous B-cell lymphomas (CBCL).

Well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) of the stomach and pancreas represent 2 major subtypes of gastrointestinal NETs. Historically, there has been little consensus on the classification and management of patients with these tumor subtypes. We provide an overview of well-differentiated NETs of the stomach and pancreas and describe consensus guidelines for the treatment of patients with these malignancies.

Elderly or frail patients are often excluded from clinical trials. As a result, clinical outcome of these patients may differ from those obtained in trials. This situation may also hold true for patients who have severe concomitant diseases such as renal, hepatic, or cardiac dysfunction. Being aware of the wide range of clinical situations that a specialist may face is important to ensure that under any circumstances, the patient will receive the best treatment possible. The Spanish Oncology Genitourinary Group issued its first public statement on recommendations for the optimal management of advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC). However, some issues remained unsolved. In this report, we discuss the current role of Medical Oncology in the treatment of patients with advanced RCC and review the management of special patient populations, such as elderly or patients with concomitant diseases.

In patients with early-stage breast cancer treated with breast-conserving surgery, randomized trials have found little difference in local control and survival outcomes between patients treated with conventionally fractionated (CF-) whole breast irradiation (WBI) and those receiving hypofractionated (HF)-WBI. However, it remains controversial whether these results apply to all subgroups of patients. We therefore developed an evidence-based guideline to provide direction for clinical practice.

While new strategies for the treatment of invasive breast cancer (BC) are emerging, radiotherapy (RT) modalities are still under debate. The French expert review board of Nice-Saint-Paul de Vence was asked firstly to conduct a qualitative evidence-based systematic review and then to establish clinical practice guidelines for the use of post operative RT in invasive BC.

The Ann Arbor system is typically used for the staging of Non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. This classification was nevertheless originally developed in the 1970s for Hodgkin's lymphoma, a disease usually confined to the lymph nodes with less frequent dissemination to extralymphatic organs/tissues and extremely rare primary extranodal involvement. Non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, however, are more often associated with extralymphatic involvement and primary extranodal lymphomas are relatively common (approximately 1/3 of cases). Therefore, the value of the Ann Arbor staging system appears to be limited in these cases. An analysis of data from centres participating within the Czech Lymphoma Study Group showed that staging of Non-Hodgkin's lymphomas with extranodal involvement is not uniform.

The task force of the Japanese Breast Cancer Society was assembled to examine variable factors related to the immunohistochemical evaluation of hormone receptors in breast cancer, and to provide recommendations for adequate handling of specimens and accurate evaluations for hormone receptors. The various factors examined were: i) the adequate handling of breast cancer tissue for IHC, ii) the concordant rate between EIA and IHC assays using 5 different staining methods, iii) the inter-observer diversity for evaluation, and iv) the threshold for the predictive value of endocrine therapy of primary and recurrent/metastatic breast cancers. The conducted studies found that a 10% threshold was stable and reliable in spite of different validations including the concordance between IHC and EIA assays, inter-observer diversity and disease-free survival rates for patients who received tamoxifen for primary breast cancers. It was also found that 1% of threshold was useful in limited situations including the predictive value of endocrine therapy for recurrent/metastatic breast cancers. Based on these results for technical, pathological and clinical validation studies, a recommendation was proposed. Herein, we summarize the evidence, on which the recommendations were made, and customize the recommendations suitable for the current status.

To develop a guideline to improve the accuracy of immunohistochemical (IHC) estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PgR) testing in breast cancer and the utility of these receptors as predictive markers.