Common toxicity criteria: Version 2.0. an improved reference for grading the acute effects of cancer treatment: Impact on radiotherapy

In 1997, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) led an effort to revise and ex pand the Common Toxicity Criteria (CTC) with the goal of integrating system ic agent, radiation, and surgical criteria into a comprehensive and standar dized system. Representatives from the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RT OG) participated in this process in an effort to improve acute radiation re lated criteria and to achieve better clarity and consistency among modaliti es. CTC v, 2.0 replaces the previous NCI CTC and the RTOG Acute Radiation M orbidity Scoring Criteria and includes more than 260 individual adverse eve nts with more than 100 of these applicable to acute radiation effects. One of the advantages of the revised criteria for radiation oncology is the opp ortunity to grade acute radiation effects not adequately captured under the previous RTOG system, A pilot study conducted by the RTOG indicated the ne w criteria are indeed more comprehensive and were preferred by research ass ociates. CTC v, 2.0 represents an improvement in the evaluation and grading of acute toxicity for all modalities. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc.