New Australian clinical practice guidelines for melanoma
October 31, 2016
Foreword Excerpts
In 2014, with many further advances in melanoma diagnosis and management having been made, it was apparent that yet another revision of the Australian melanoma management guidelines was necessary. However, there was concern that the process used to develop the two previous sets of national guidelines would be too protracted and cumbersome in an era when rapid advances in management are occurring. Nor was any funding readily available to proceed along the same lines as previously, i.e. following the strict NHMRC requirements for the production of guidelines.
A possible solution to the problem was proposed by Professor Ian Olver AM, then CEO of Cancer Council Australia. He suggested that using an electronic “wiki” platform, guidelines could be produced in a way that allowed individual sections to be updated as new evidence became available.
In November 2014, at an initial meeting of the guidelines working party, 23 questions were identified as being of greatest importance, covering issues relating to diagnosis, staging and management of cutaneous melanoma. These questions were then prioritised and work commenced immediately, with relevant evidence collected for each question then critically appraised by the systematic review team.
Made possible by use of the wiki platform, each chapter of the new Australian melanoma management guidelines will be published online when it is completed. After a draft has been prepared by each chapter group, it is released for public consultation, then finalised and approved for publication by the entire working group.
At the time of preparing this Foreword the first four chapters have completed this process and are being published. They are:
Clinical features and atypical melanoma
When is a sentinel node biopsy indicated?
Recommended definitive margins for excision of primary melanoma
A summary of the recommendations to date is available here.
Source:
Professor John Thompson, Chair, Melanoma Guidelines Working Party. Foreword to clinical practice guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Melanoma