The UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published new guidelines to maximise the safety of patients with cancer and make the best use of NHS resources, while protecting staff from infection.

The advice also enables services to match the capacity for cancer treatment to patient needs if services become limited because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The guideline is for:

• health and care practitioners
• health and care staff involved in planning and delivering services
• commissioners

The recommendations bring together

• existing national and international guidance and policies
• advice from specialists working in the NHS from across the UK. These include people with expertise and experience of treating patients for the specific health conditions covered by the guidance during the current COVID-19 pandemic.

NICE has developed these recommendations in direct response to the rapidly evolving situation and so could not follow the standard process for guidance development.

The guideline has been developed using the interim process and methods for developing rapid guidelines on COVID-19. The recommendations are based on evidence and expert opinion and have been verified as far as possible. We will review and update the recommendations as the knowledge base and expert experience develops.

To read the guidelines visit the NICE website