Development of care programmes for cancer. WHO Care Programme Committee.

As part of WHO's programme on model health-care programmes and quality assurance, a series of meetings attended by specialists in cancer care, community medicine and public health, health administrators, epidemiologists, biostatisticians and health economists have looked at ways of improving cancer care. Model health-care programmes, i.e. guidelines on how best to treat a cancer patient with the available resources approved by all concerned parties and adapted to the local needs emerged as a promising method. Drawing on the findings and recommendations of these meetings, this report suggests comprehensive guidelines for the development of care programmes in cancer. Its eight sections cover: objectives; organization; rationale; characteristics; contents; development; evaluation; and the responsibilities of health authorities, cancer registries, cancer centres and WHO in the development and implementation of care programmes. For the health-care administrators and representatives of public health, the discussion on the objectives and rationale of care programmes will be particularly important whereas the detailed and concrete description of their contents and development will interest cancer-care specialists as well as other health-care practitioners. This last section on responsibilities spells out in detail what the concerned parties could do.