Lung cancer guidelines in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland: a comparison

Figures & data

Table 1. An Overview of key methodological characteristics and year of update of national clinical guidelines for lung cancer care in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland.

Country	Publishedby	Last updated	Diseases	Systematicliterature review	No. ofReferences	Grading ofevidence	No. ofauthors
Denmark visitation, diagnosis and staging	CS	2014	NSCLC; SCLC	Not stated	172	No	N/A
Denmark pathology	CS	2015	–	Not stated	10	No	2
Denmark surgery	–	2001	–	–	–	–	–
Denmark oncology	CS	2016	NSCLC; SCLC	Not stated	73^a	No	N/A
Norway	AUT	2016	SCLC; NSCLC; Carci; Mes; Thy; TC	Yes	506	Yes	19
Sweden	AUT	2015	SCLC; NSCLC; Carci; Mes; Thy; TC	Not stated	350^a	Yes^b	28
Finnish	CS	2015	SCLC; NSCLC	Yes	232	Yes	16

CS: clinical society; AUT: authorities; SCLC: small cell lung cancer; Thy: thymoma; TC: thymic carcinoma; Carci: carcinoid tumor; Mes: malignant mesothelioma.

^a References provided after each section, thus reference duplicates are possible.

^b Indirectly (see text).

Table 2. Standard time frames in cancer packages for Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

Course element	Denmark	Sweden	Norway
From referral to onset of diagnostic work-up	6 calendar days	5 calendar days	7 calendar days
Onset until completion of diagnostic work-up	24 calendar days	21 calendar days	21 calendar days
Completion of diagnostic work-up until onset of treatment
Sur	14 calendar days	14 calendar days	14 calendar days
RT	15 calendar days	14 calendar days	14 calendar days
Che	11 calendar days	10 calendar days	7 calendar days

Sur: surgery; RT: radiotherapy; Che: chemotherapy.