2022     Newly published by the Palliative Care Study Group, this guideline provides evidence-based recommendations on the management of malignant bowel obstruction (MBO) for patients with advanced cancer.

2022     Congratulations to the members of the Mucositis Guidelines Leadership Group! Their guidelines summary paper is acknowledged as a “top cited” paper for 2020-2021 in Cancer journal.

2022     Now available from the Mucositis Study Group, the MASCC/ISOO clinical practice guidelines for the management of mucositis (2019-2020) have been translated into 8 languages: Arabic, French, German, Greek, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazilian), Portuguese (Portugal), and Spanish.

2021     The Palliative Care Study Group recently formed a Subgroup to develop evidence-based guidance on the use of clinically assisted nutrition (CAN) in patients with advanced cancer. Although every patient needs individualized management, this guidance will provide a framework for clinicians in this area.

2021     Our newest guidelines, created jointly with ISOO and ASCO, address the prevention and management of salivary gland hypofunction and xerostomia induced by non-surgical cancer therapies.

2021     Two updated MASCC guidelines from the Palliative Care Study Group are now available on our website:

2020    The Russian Society of Supportive Care in Oncology (RASSC) recently held the Best of MASCC on October 9.  The conference, based in Moscow, was held online, and welcomed more than 500 attendees.  The international virtual event focused on issues in supportive cancer care including anemia, cardiotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, nutritional support, psychological and psychiatric care, preservation of fertility in young patients, and concomitant therapy in the era of COVID-19.

2020    MASCC presents a collection of 2020 clinical practice recommendations for the management of immune-mediated adverse events from checkpoint inhibitors. These recommendations are focused on patients with the most severe toxicities and provide an important international resource and reference in helping improve the management of these presentations.

2020    Updated clinical practice guidelines for managing mucositis, a very common and often debilitating complication of cancer therapy, was recently published with open access in the journal Cancer. Patients experiencing mucositis often require enteral or parenteral nutrition, consume more opioids, and experience more interruptions to cancer therapy than patients who do not experience mucositis.

2019    Constipation is a common problem among patients with advanced cancer, with a reported prevalence of 32–87% in this group, in whom it also causes significant morbidity. Opioid-induced constipation appears to be a chronic side effect and is more common in patients with cancer pain than in those with nonmalignant pain. It may be influenced by the type of opioid involved, as well as by genetic factors, but does not appear to be particularly influenced by the dose of opioid.

2019    MASCC’s Mucositis Study Group (MSG) has announced the latest update of the MASCC/ISOO Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management of Mucositis Secondary to Cancer Therapy. An editorial by MSG Chair Sharon Elad, DMD, MSc, and seven articles have just been published (July 2019) in a Special Section of Supportive Care in Cancer (SCC). This is the first set of papers generated as part of this guideline update and it represents several types of interventions for oral mucositis: anti-inflammatory agents; photobiomodulation; vitamins, minerals, and nutritional supplements; and protocols categorized as basic oral care.

2019    A new MASCC/ISOO/ASCO Clinical Practice Guideline on Medication-Related Osteonecrosis of the Jaw has been published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) by the American Society of Clinical Oncology. (Yarom N et al, J Clin Oncol 2019 Jul 22:JCO1901186. Epub ahead of print). 

2015    In September, 2014, The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) published clinical practice guidelines for maintaining bone health in patients with cancer. The guidelines address both multidisciplinary treatments for reducing skeletal effects of metastatic disease and strategies for minimizing treatment-induced skeletal damage. The guidelines article was published in the Annals of Oncology by R. Coleman, J. J. Body, M. Aapro, P. Hadji, and J. Herrstedt on behalf of the ESMO Guidelines Working Group.*

2016    The MASCC/ESMO Antiemetic Guidelines have been updated as of March, 2016. The guidelines are based on the Copenhagen Consensus Conference on Antiemetic Therapy, June 2015, and have been endorsed by both MASCC and ESMO. This set of evidence-based guidelines represents several important changes and first-time inclusions. This is the first time that recommendations about management of nausea and vomiting in advanced cancer have been included — as opposed to only nausea and vomiting induced by chemotherapy or radiotherapy — and in this respect, the new MASCC/ESMO guidelines differ from those of NCCN and ASCO. The new guidelines contain recommendations for two new NK1 receptor antagonists, rolapitant and netupitant, the latter given in combination with palonosetron (NEPA), and also discuss the use of olanzapine. The combination of an anthracycline with cyclophosphamide, previously considered of medium emetogenic risk (30-90% risk of vomiting) is now considered a high-risk combination (>90% risk of vomiting). However, this remains a special case, since recommendations for the delayed phase differ from those of other chemotherapies of highly emetogenic risk. In addition, carboplatin is now considered a special case with an indication for triple preventative therapy in the acute phase.

2015    On September 2, 2015, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved rolapitant (Varubi™) for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV). Rolapitant, developed by Tesaro, Inc., is a selective and competitive neurokinin 1 (NK-1) receptor antagonist and is relatively long-acting with a half-life of about 7 days). The approval was based on three phase III clinical trials conducted by a research team that included MASCC members Bernardo Rapoport, Martin Chasen, Allen Poma, Lee Schwartzberg, and Rudolph Navari. These randomized, double-blind, controlled trials established the safety and efficacy of rolapitant. The drug was associated with a significant reduction in vomiting and use of rescue antiemetic drugs. Patients treated with rolapitant also reported both fewer episodes of nausea that interfered with their day-to-day life.

2013    At the MASCC/ISOO 2013 International Cancer Care Symposium in Berlin, Dr. Ian Olver presented an evaluation of a Digital Clinical Practice Guidelines Project undertaken by Cancer Council Australia, of which he is Chief Executive Officer.