At its annual meeting in San Francisco, the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) released its second list of five radiation oncology-specific treatments that are commonly ordered but may not always be appropriate.
The list is part of the national Choosing Wisely campaign, an initiative of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM). ASTRO released its first list of five recommendations last September.
ASTRO recommends that clinicians avoid the following:
- Recommending radiation following hysterectomy for endometrial cancer patients with low-risk disease
- Routinely offering radiation therapy for patients who have resected non-small cell lung cancer, negative margins, or node-negative or node 1 disease
- Initiating noncurative radiation therapy without defining the goals of treatment with the patient and considering palliative care referral
- Routinely recommending follow-up mammograms more often than annually for women who have had radiotherapy following breast conserving surgery
- Routinely adding adjuvant whole-brain radiation therapy to stereotactic radiosurgery for limited brain metastases
ASTRO's Choosing Wisely list was developed after several months of consideration and review of current evidence about management and treatment options, the organization said.
