Context: The "Standards, Options and Recommendations" (SOR) project, which started in 1993, is a collaboration between the French Federation of Cancer Centers (FNCLCC), the 20 French Regional Cancer Centers, and specialists from French public universities, general hospitals and private clinics. The main objective is the development of clinical practice guidelines to improve the quality of health care and the outcome of cancer patients.
Objective: To develop good practice guidelines for a good practice of enteral nutrition in oncology, in collaboration with three French learned societies involved in this area.
Method: The methodology is based on a literature review and critical appraisal by a multidisciplinary group of experts who define the CPGs according to the definitions of the Standards, Options and Recommendations project. Once the guideline has been defined, the document is submitted for review by independent reviewers.
Results: The good practices suggested in the document approach seven topics: indications and counter-indications, conditions of the installation of the enteral nutrition, monitoring, prevention of complications, education of the patient, specificities of enteral nutrition in children and at home. In the setting of enteral nutrition, feeding tubes, type of insertion, enteral nutrition products, material and techniques of administration are described as well as the criteria permitting their selection.