[Clinical Practice Guidelines: 2003 update of Standards, Options and Recommendations for the management patients with malignant tumors of the salivary glands (excluding lymphomas, sarcoma and melanoma) (full report)].
BACKGROUND
The Standards, Options and Recommendations (SOR) project, which started in 1993, is a collaboration between the Federation of French Cancer Centers (FNCLCC), the 20 French Regional Cancer Centers, and specialists from French public universities, general hospitals and private clinics. The main objective is the development of clinical practice guidelines for practitioners to improve the quality of health care for patients with cancer.


OBJECTIVE
To update clinical practice guidelines for the management of patients with salivary gland malignant tumors previously validated in 1997. These recommendations cover diagnosis, classification, treatment and follow-up of patients with these tumors.


METHODS
The methodology is based on a literature review and critical appraisal by a multidisciplinary group of experts who define the CPGs according to the definitions of the Standards, Options and Recommendations project. Once the guidelines has been defined, the document is submitted for review by independent reviewers.


RESULTS
This document presents the full report of the updated clinical practice guidelines with algorithms. The main questions addressed by the expert group in this update concern the place of fine needle aspiration biopsy in preoperative diagnosis, the place of cervical lymph node area surgical treatment, the place of postoperative irradiation and neutron therapy in the treatment of unresectable tumors and also the place of medical imaging, especially RMI, for the diagnosis of these tumors.
D006801:Humans; D012468:Salivary Gland Neoplasms / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy