# Standard of care

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/standard-of-care/  
OnCo record `standard-of-care` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

The standard of care is the treatment that guidelines and experts currently consider the best-proven option.

## Summary

The standard of care is the treatment that guidelines and expert consensus currently regard as the best-proven option; SoC, standard therapy, standard regimen and guideline-concordant care are its aliases. It is defined by NCCN, ESMO and ASCO guidelines on the basis of randomised evidence, shifts with each positive phase 3 trial, and varies by region according to approvals and reimbursement. The term is linked to the NCCN Guidelines collection, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), the NCCN Compendium and Nathan Cherny. It runs through the bottlenecks on slow trial enrolment, regulatory divergence, prices and value, fragmented care, slow knowledge diffusion and misaligned incentives, and it underpins the idea that sponsors must justify every exclusion criterion.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-09-04
- Also known as: SoC; standard-of-care; standard therapy; standard therapies; standard treatment; standard treatments; standard care; standard chemotherapy; standard regimen; current standard; guideline-recommended; guideline-concordant

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_of_care
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_of_care

## Connected records

- collections: [ASCO clinical practice guidelines](https://onco.cc/collections/asco-guidelines/), [NCCN Guidelines](https://onco.cc/collections/nccn/)
- institutions: [National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN)](https://onco.cc/institutions/nccn-org/)
- people: [Nathan Cherny](https://onco.cc/people/nathan-cherny/)
- bottlenecks: [Fragmented care and guideline gaps](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-care-fragmentation/), [Incentives reward me-too drugs and marginal gains](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-incentive-misalignment/), [Knowledge reaches practice too slowly](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-knowledge-diffusion/), [Older and multimorbid patients are excluded and undertreated](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-aging-comorbidity/), [Patients lack understanding, navigation and agency](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-patient-voice/), [Prices and value](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-drug-pricing/), [Regulatory divergence between regions](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-regulatory-fragmentation/), [Trials enrol too few, too slowly](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-trial-enrolment/)
- ideas: [A shared library of pooled control arms to shrink and speed future trials](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-fund-control-arm-commons/), [Borrow from past control arms to shrink the control group in phase 3](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-tr1-bayesian-borrowing-smaller-controls/), [Default-inclusive eligibility: sponsors must justify every exclusion criterion](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-tr1-justify-every-exclusion/), [Living, machine-readable guidelines pushed to the point of care in every country](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-moon-living-machine-readable-guidelines/), [Randomise inside the cancer registry: registry-based trials for everyday questions](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-tr1-registry-embedded-randomisation/), [Require head-to-head trials against the best in class for later entrants](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-fund-head-to-head-mandate/)
- terms: [Clinical trial](https://onco.cc/terms/clinical-trial/), [Control arm and comparator (investigator's choice)](https://onco.cc/terms/control-arm/), [NCCN Compendium and drug compendia](https://onco.cc/terms/nccn-compendium/), [Off-label](https://onco.cc/terms/off-label/), [Phase 1, 2 and 3 trials](https://onco.cc/terms/trial-phases/), [Placebo](https://onco.cc/terms/placebo/), [Pragmatic trial](https://onco.cc/terms/pragmatic-trial/), [Randomised trial](https://onco.cc/terms/randomised-trial/)
- technologies: [Multidisciplinary tumour boards](https://onco.cc/technologies/multidisciplinary-tumour-board/)
- key papers: [ADRIATIC: durvalumab after chemoradiotherapy for limited-stage small-cell lung cancer](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-adriatic-nejm-2024/), [EV-302: enfortumab vedotin plus pembrolizumab replaces chemotherapy as first treatment for advanced bladder cancer](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-ev-302-nejm-2024/), [IMbrave150: atezolizumab plus bevacizumab replaces sorafenib as first treatment for advanced liver cancer](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-imbrave150-nejm-2020/), [KEYNOTE-A18: pembrolizumab with chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced cervical cancer (overall survival)](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-keynote-a18-os-lancet-2024/), [KEYNOTE-A18: pembrolizumab with chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced cervical cancer (progression-free survival)](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-keynote-a18-pfs-lancet-2024/), [NAPOLI-3: NALIRIFOX versus gemcitabine plus nab-paclitaxel as first treatment for metastatic pancreatic cancer](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-napoli-3-lancet-2023/), [PACIFIC: a year of durvalumab after chemoradiotherapy for stage III lung cancer](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-pacific-nejm-2017/), [STAMPEDE: adding abiraterone to hormone therapy at diagnosis of advanced prostate cancer](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-stampede-abiraterone-nejm-2017/), [Stupp 2005: temozolomide added to radiotherapy for newly diagnosed glioblastoma](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-stupp-temozolomide-nejm-2005/)
- journals: [Integrative cancer therapies](https://onco.cc/journals/integrative-cancer-therapies/)

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