This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Cancer network offers new resources for rectal cancer patients

Add topic to email alerts

Receive an email when new articles are posted on

Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on .

Subscribe

Added to email alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

Back to Healio

We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Back to Healio

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network has published new resources, including guidelines for patients and a quick guide sheet for rectal cancer – in addition to resources for colon cancer from earlier this year – to help patients with rectal cancer make informed choices about their care, according to a press release.

With support from Fight Colorectal Cancer, patients will have access to easy-to-understand guidelines based on the same clinical evidence used by health care professionals to determine the best way to treat cancer patients, according to the release.

Each resource includes expert guidance from top cancer centers created to help people living with cancer understand and talk about their treatment options with health care providers, per the release. The NCCN Guidelines for Patients and NCCN Quick Guide sheets, one-page summaries of the main points in the patient guidelines, include questions to ask one’s physician, a glossary and medical illustrations of anatomy, tests, and treatment, according to the release.

“It is so important for patients and their families to have access to reliable, up-to-date and understandable information about their cancer to assist in composing questions and making decisions about their care when seeking guidance from their clinicians,” Al B. Benson, III, MD, associate director for Cooperative Groups, Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, and chair of the NCCN Guidelines Panels for Colon, Rectal, and Anal Cancers, said. “The NCCN Guidelines for Patients and NCCN Quick Guide sheet for Rectal Cancer are such tools that we hope will be invaluable to those with rectal cancer and their friends and family as they manage the complexities of this disease.”

The NCCN Guidelines for Patients and NCCN Quick Guide sheet for Rectal Cancer are available for free download at NCCN.org/patients and the NCCN Patient Guides for Cancer mobile app.

Disclosures: Benson is the associate director for Cooperative Groups and chair of the NCCN Guidelines Panels for Colon, Rectal, and Anal Cancers.