Treatment Recommendations for Urological Symptoms in Cancer Patients: Clinical Guidelines from the Japanese Society for Palliative Medicine.

Abstract

Urological symptoms such as gross hematuria, lower and upper urinary tract symptoms, and bladder pain are common in and distressing for patients with advanced cancer. Although palliation of urological symptoms is important to improve the quality of life of cancer patients and their families and caregivers, clinical guidelines for managing urological symptoms in patients with cancer have not been published. Following the formal guideline development process, the Japanese Society for Palliative Medicine (JSPM) developed comprehensive clinical guidelines for the management of urological symptoms in patients with cancer. This article summarizes the recommendations and their rationales and provides a short summary of the development process of the JSPM urological symptom management guidelines. We established five recommendations, all of which were based on the best available evidence and expert consensus. JSPM released the first edition of the "Clinical Guidelines for Urological Symptoms in Cancer Patients." Future clinical research and continuous guideline updates are required to improve the quality of managing urological symptoms in patients with cancer.