A GLOSSARY FOR REPORTING COMPLICATIONS OF TREATMENT IN GYNECOLOGICAL CANCERS

Reporting and scoring treatment complications in gynecological cancers is difficult because of the variety of normal tissues, anatomical str uctures and treatment disciplines involved, making it impossible to co mpare series of patients treated in different institutions even with t he same strategy. An international group of experts (gynecologists, ra diotherapists and surgeons) developed a multidisciplinary database to identify, score and report early and late normal tissue damage regardl ess of treatment strategy. The principles involve: (1) The identificat ion of relevant organs and tissues; (2) An accurate definition of the type and score of each complication; (3) Reporting combinations of com plications of various degrees; (4) A computerized format for data acqu isition, update and retrieval. In the present version, the ''Glossary' ' describes five degrees of increasing severity (0 to 4) in 14 organs and/or normal tissues. The rationale of the glossary leaves it open fo r as yet undescribed types of complications. This paper contains the d efinition and scoring for each type of complication, general guideline s for their use.