Up to date Clinical Protocols
New drugs and other new treatments are constantly developed for diseases like cancer. As a result of this, medical textbooks are usually out of date at the moment they are printed.
Up to date treatment methods are available as treatment protocols. It is defined in a treatment protocol how drugs have to be dosed and administered. Also the nature and timing of tests is given.
In protocols all aspects of the treatment are described in detail. There are protocols for treatments that have been used for many years, but also for new experimental treatment methods. Often medical treatments are prolonged and complex. As a result of this protocols tend to be bulky documents.
Doctors specialized in the treatment of a specific disease often collaborate to develop new treatment protocols. These protocols are often used for a limited period, after which a new protocol is developed based on results of previous protocols.
Protocols are often developed under the responsibility of organizations, which aim to improve the treatment of certain specific diseases. The pharmaceutical industry also develops protocols for treatments with new drugs.
Since protocols are constantly updated, they are often distributed in the form of pdf files which can be found on the websites of these organizations.
Cancer is a disease in which protocol based treatment is very common. Treatment protocols are used more and more often in this disease. One reason for this is the fact that the diagnosis is made by an increasing number of people.
This is caused by the aging of the population. Cancer patients also live longer after diagnosis, because more and more effective treatment modalities become available.
In other words, there are more people with cancer and per patient there are more different treatment protocols used than before.