Impact of ASCO guidelines for the use of hematopoietic colony stimulating factors (CSFs): survey results of fifteen Paris university hospitals

To assess whether physicians comply with American Society of Clinical Oncol ogy (ASCO) guidelines for the use of CSFs, a prospective survey was perform ed in 15 Paris university hospitals involved in cancer treatment in 1997. I f 45% of the prescriptions complied with the guidelines, primary prophylact ic administration, which represented 52% of cases, did not comply with ASCO guidelines. These results suggested that primary prophylactic administrati on was one major clinical situation in which physicians could benefit from guidance to use a CSFs and that criteria defined by ASCO to allow primary p rophylactic administration were not applied in clinical practice.