ASCO Website Style Guide

How to Use this Guide

Use this guide for creating and updating content on ASCO's family of websites.

The content is organized by essential tips and more advanced tips, which include specific copy references. Advanced tips are in alphabetical order.

Consult the Web Writing Guide for how to write for the web.

Headers

H1 is considered the website title, and should not be used on pages. Currently, H2 is used for page titles. In body copy, the largest header that should be used is H3, for first-level subheads. After that, second-level subheads should be bold and in title case, and third level subheads should be italicized and in sentence case.

Ampersands (&) should be used in lieu of the word "and" in all H2 and H3 headers.

Images

Images can both help and hinder webpage layouts. Images should convey and relate to the content associated. It is recommended to use a maximum of two images on a page or none at all. All images should include alt titles for use by screen readers in order to enhance accessibility for low-vision users.

Homepage

Expert Perspective, Practice-Changing Science, or Featured Content: 1000 x 666px

Basic Image Sizes for Webpages

Use the following guide for pages within the site. This list is subject to change per ASCO's Digital Transformation. When in doubt, it is recommended to contact the Web Operations team if you are unclear.

Image files should be named using the File Naming Convention and should be a .png file at a minimum of 72dpi.

Portrait

Landscape

Small

184 x 300px

300 x 184px

Medium

245 x 400px

400 x 245px

Large

306 x 500px

500 x 306px

What Basic Page Image Size Should You Request?

Stock photos should be the small image size.
Graphs, charts, or graphics with writing on them should use the large image size
Images of groups of people should be the large image size, or the largest standard image size possible.

Special Sizes

Headshot: 305x305 px
Cover of a Publication: 300x402 px
Infographic: 500x647 px
Icons: 125x125 px

Logos

Logos should be the small basic page image size (300x184px). PNG files at 72dpi or 96dpi are preferred.

Logos from other organizations will only be resized to fit ASCO's website requirements. IT will not alter, recolor, or reverse other organization's logos.

Logos must be from a reputable source

Taking logos from search engines or other websites can result in copyright infringement. It is assumed that logos provided to IT are approved and were supplied by authorized personnel.

When ASCO is part of a supporter group, the ASCO logo will not be repeated. For example, ASCO is part of a Webinar series with several other organizations. ASCO will be mentioned in the copy, but the logo will not repeat because the content is on an ASCO website.

Files

Please ensure that your file is named correctly and that your files are optimized for the web.

Files permitted on ASCO's websites:

Pdf
Jpeg
Png

Headlines (Page Titles)

Use a verb in headlines (Avon Foundation Supports CDA in Breast Cancer)
Headlines for articles, textboxes, and sidebars should use title case. All subheads should be sentence case.
Do not capitalize prepositions or articles (a, an, the) in headlines.
ASCO does not use special characters, such as trademark or copyright, in website titles/headlines.

Bullets

If 2 or more grammatically independent statements follow the colon, they may be treated as complete sentences separated by periods or not, and the initial words may or may not be capitalized.

Example:

To this end, the Society is committed to:

Advancing the education of the oncology community in the care of patients from underserved and/or minority populations.
Increasing the diversity of the clinical oncology workforce as a requisite to improving access to cancer care for the underserved.

Buttons/CTAs

CTAs, or Call to Action, are most often shown as buttons on a webpage, indicating an action that is being requested of the user.

Buttons should not be longer than 2-3 words and should be self-explanatory.

Register Today
View Webinar
Download Form
Submit Now
Apply Today

If there is no alternative to the quick action words, CTAs should be bolded and listed within the copy.

Comma

Use a serial (Oxford) comma in lists: patients, families, and clinicians NOT patients, families and clinicians.
Use a comma to separate geographic location from a listing, for example: George Washington Hospital, in Washington, DC.
No comma before “compared to”

Common Website Language

Preferred spellings:

email
homepage
internet
pop-up window
web
website
WiFi

Links to Content

URLs should be embedded in text, unless it is vital to highlight an actual URL
- Example: Register today for the Quality Care Symposium.
Linking to documents should open in a new tab.
Linking to other webpages within the same website should open in the same window.
Linking to other websites, including other ASCO websites, should open in a new tab.

Hashtags

For non-meeting instances like #ASCOAdvocacy, format full word hashtags with cap first letter.
For other official hashtags, all caps. #ASCO24. All others are: #GI24, #GU24, #ASCOBT24, #ASCOQLTY24

Dates, Times, & Places

Dates

Spell out months when referring to a complete date.
- Example: January 2, 2022.
If just mentioning month and year, leave out the comma.
- Example: In January 2022, I received the book.
Insert comma after day of week, numerical date, and year.
- Example: Because of the importance of its topic, the article was published three weeks later, on Wednesday, January 26, 2022, as a JAMA-EXPRESS.

Years

Do not use a dash between years, rather spell out, “to.”
Example: The trial was held from 2020 to 2022.

Time

Use capital letters for AM and PM, with no periods; use a space between the time and the abbreviation (7:00 AM).
Use following zeros for all times (7:00 AM, NOT 7 AM).
For ranges of time, follow all these rules and use an en-dash with no spaces (7:00 AM–9:00 AM).
Add ET

Locations

For locations that are mentioned in text:

If the city of publication may be unknown to readers or may be confused with another city of the same name, the state, province, or (sometimes) country is usually added. Washington is traditionally followed by D.C., but other major cities, such as Los Angeles and Baltimore, need no state abbreviation.
For international locations, use your judgment, i.e., London, Paris, Madrid, do not need country designations, if it’s clear from the context of the article that the city refers to London, England, and not London, Ontario. But a lesser-known city should be followed by the country, spelled out and separated by a comma.
When citing ASCO Meetings, include city and state name (or city and country name for international meetings).

Examples:

I left my heart in San Francisco.
Geneva is a wonderful place to buy chocolate.

Emails

Emails listed in copy, should be masked in the copy and linked with "mailto:email@email.org"

Examples include:

Contact the IT Department for more details.

Contact Julie Moore for additional questions.

Accessibility

ASCO adheres to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 AA requirements.

Perceivability: Users must be able to perceive the information being presented (it can't be invisible to all of their senses)

Operability: Users must be able to operate the interface (the interface cannot require interaction that a user cannot perform)

Understandability: Users must be able to understand the information as well as the operation of the user interface (the content or operation cannot be beyond their understanding)

Robustness: Users must be able to access the content as technologies advance (as technologies and user agents evolve, the content should remain accessible)

Provide text alternatives for any non-text content so that it can be changed into other forms people need, such as large print, braille, speech, symbols or simpler language
Create content that can be presented in different ways (for example simpler layout) without losing information or structure
Make it easier for users to see and hear content including separating foreground from background

Text is the foundation of all other formats—audio, visual and graphics—because it can act as the translator between of those other content formats

Alt text
Transcripts and captions
Audio description
Messaging that conveys errors using multiple means, such as icons and changes in field border colors

Accessibility is an asset. It is about being inclusive for all. To make sure content is useful and useable for both people and assistive technology like screen readers, check:

Is our anchor text for links descriptive and contextual? Do we need to replace any that say 'here' or 'click here?'
Is it readable? Try a tool like Readable.io to see what the readability score is
Do images have alt text? Are they detailed enough?
If it’s video or audio, is it available in different formats, such as transcripts or with closed captions?

Abbreviations

Follow AMA guidelines for educational designations (no periods): MD, PhD, MA, etc.
We should use preferred designations for ASCO Members as listed in the Member Directory on AIR. For honorary degrees that are not ASCO-designated, include them if there is room.
An example of a list of honorary degrees that might be shortened, depending on space: Gary H. Lyman, MD, MPH, FACP, FRCP (Edin), FASCO.
Use the FASCO designation for all FASCO recipients. This information is currently not in the Member Directory. To search within a list of FASCO members that goes back to 2007, click here.
Clinical Trials, Projects, and Studies that go by acronyms:
- Medical Research Council Adjuvant Gastric Infusional Chemotherapy (MAGIC)
- National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP)
- Prostate Cancer Study of Calcitriol Enhancing Taxotere (ASCENT)
- Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST)
- Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene (STAR)

NOTE: Clinical trial names that use an acronym (STAR, CRYSTAL, etc) should be identified only by their acronym, no expansion. If the trial does not have an acronym as a title, full name should be used.

The following should be spelled out at first mention:
- tyrosine-kinase inhibitors (TKI)

And

Do not use "+" in copy or in titles or headlines
As mentioned in the guide, use "and" and "&" in titles. See that section for more detail.

Acronyms

Spell out at first mention, followed by abbreviation in parentheses. Use acronym for subsequent mentions.
- Tricky acronyms
  - abelson leukemia virus (ABL)
  - biochemically no evidence of disease (bNED)
  - cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2)
  - interferons (IFNs)
  - metastatic rental cell cancer (mRCC)
  - non-central nervous system (CNS)
The following acronyms do not require expansion (Exception: if the author expands the acronym at first mention, okay to leave):
- RI
- PET
- RECIST
- BRCA
- HER2
- HPV
- CT, unless “CT” is being used as an abbreviation for chemotherapy.
- PARP
- AIDS
- HLA
- HIV
- PTEN
- PI3K
- mTOR
- PD-L1 (stands for programmed death; note hyphenation)
- DNA (for coding or complementary DNA, spell out c word and abbreviate DNA)
- RNA (for messenger RNA or microRNA, spell out m word and abbreviate RNA)
- CI
- MRI
- PD-L1
- EGFR
- VEGF
- ALK
Common acronyms and expansions that should be spelled out at first mention:
- complete response (CR)
- disease-free survival (DFS)
- hazard ratio (HR)
- high-dose chemotherapy (HDC)
- overall survival (OS)
- pathologic complete response (pCR)
- progression-free survival (PFS)
- progressive disease (PD)
- partial response (PR)
- recurrence-free survival (RFS)
- response rate (RR)
- stable disease (SD)
- standard deviation (SD)
- time to progression (TTP)
- tyrosine-kinase inhibitors (TKI)

Spell disease names out at first mention; use abbreviation subsequently (i.e., AML, CML, NHL)

Use a definite article (“the”) in front of an abbreviation that is not said as a word- “the FDA,” but NASA and OSHA are not preceded by “the.”
Example: A meeting at NASA gathered together top astronomers in the field.

EXCEPTION: NCI, and NIH are not preceded by “the”

Example: A meeting at NIH gathered together top clinicians in the field.

It’s acceptable for acronyms to be possessive.
Example: The National Cancer Institute’s (NCI’s) agenda

Adjectives

-logic / -logical word ending
Do not use the –logical ending, as it is redundant.
Correct: gynecologic, histologic, pathologic, histologic, and so on.

EXCEPTION: the following words should end with “logical:”

biological, psychological, astronomical, historical, statistical.

ASCO Annual Meeting

Should be spelled out with year at first mention: the 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting. Subsequent references can be made to “the Annual Meeting” or to “the Meeting” (capitalized).

Example: meetings.asco.org is a one-stop home for all of your Annual Meeting materials—a customizable agenda, abstracts and posters, and thousands of hours of on-demand content.

Other organizations’ Annual Meetings should always include the organization’s name (the ASH Annual Meeting, the 50th ASTRO Annual Meeting).

ASCO Connection

ASCO Connection should be italicized and spelled out every time, except when denoting a question in a Q&A, and italicize the abbreviation AC:

Example: AC: What is your favorite food?

Dr. Roberts: Chocolate chip cookies.

Capitalization

The normal rules of grammar should be followed when determining when to capitalize the initial letter of a word.

Walgreens, “Once upon a time…”, I am fine

Hyphenated words in a title should have initial caps for both words, not just the first word

How to Submit High-Quality Abstracts

Divisions, departments, and institution names should always have initial caps.

Dr. Smiles is Chief of the Section of Oncology and Hematology and Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at Oncology Hospital.

Titles and designations should have initial caps.

Dean, Director, Professor (including “Assistant” and “Associate”), Chief, Instructor

Initial caps should be used for words under 4 letters in headlines for articles, text boxes, and sidebars. Subheads below headlines should be italicized and in sentence case. This goes for all other subheads within the article.

Learn with Colleagues at Best-Ever ASCO Annual Meeting
Meeting to take place on June 4-7, 2022

“Camel case” is sometimes used when writing out the URL for an ASCO website. The following formatting should be applied to these ASCO websites:

ASCO.org
ASCOconnection.org
Cancer.Net
JCO.org
TAPUR.org
CancerLinQ.org

Do not capitalize other ASCO-affiliated URLs, or any URLs not affiliated with ASCO.

Initial caps are required for the following ASCO-specific products, events, and terms:

Annual Meeting
ASCO CEO
ASCO Past President, ASCO Immediate Past President, ASCO President, ASCO President-Elect Board of Directors, Board- for ASCO and other organizations
Chair, Chair-Elect, Past Chair- ASCO-related only
Clinical Science Symposia (CSS)
Committee, only when used in the proper name (the Ethics Committee; members of the committee)
Discussant
Oral Abstract Session
Plenary Session
State/Regional Affiliates
the Society (only in reference to ASCO)
Symposium when used with a title (Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium) after which lower case is fine
Symposia (same conditions as Symposium)
ASCO Daily News Wrap-up edition

Do not use initial caps for scales or cancer grading systems.

stage II disease, grade 4 toxicity, phase III trial
Enumerated lists should be lowercase, unless the first word is a proper noun.

CEO

Do not spell out “CEO” at first mention:

Example: ASCO CEO Clifford A. Hudis, MD, FACP, FASCO

Citations

General format:

Dbouk M, Katona BW, Brand RE, et al. The multicenter Cancer of Pancreas Screening study: impact on stage and survival. J Clin Oncol. 2022;40:3257-66.

Rules for article citations:

Include the volume number, but not the issue number.
Do not include the PMID.
End notes should appear outside commas,1 and periods. 2
Article title is sentence caps.

EXCEPTION: Some words appear in caps even in references, for example:

- Names of trials (STAR)
- Medicare, Medicaid,
- databases such as “SEER”
- research groups, such as, "International Workshop on Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia"
- names of treatment, such as “CHOP”
- protein and gene acronyms (HER2).

Epub ahead of print, before print publication

General format:

Hakimi AA, Blitstein J, Feder M, et al. Direct comparison of surgical and functional outcomes of robotic-assisted versus pure laparoscopic radical prostatectomy: single-surgeon experience. Urology. Epub 2008 Oct 28.

When citing a tweet:

In the text, you can incorporate the content into a sentence:
Example: In a Twitter post on September 14, 2021, Garrett Kiely (@gkiely) wrote, “Using Google, Authors Guild takes 2 mins to connect an author with an ‘orphaned work’: bit.ly/nqyjOo.”
For the end note: Garrett Kiely, Twitter post, September 14, 2021, 8:50 a.m., http://twitter.com/gkiely.

For blogs, use the same format as for a tweet:

Example:

Philip B. Corbett, “Close but Not Quite,” After Deadline (blog), New York Times, March 15, 2016, https://archive.nytimes.com/afterdeadline.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/03/15/close-but-not-quite-14/.

Conquer Cancer, The ASCO Foundation

Rules

On first text mention (excluding title/subtitle/caption), use Conquer Cancer®, the ASCO Foundation.
In subsequent mentions in that article, use “Conquer Cancer” or “the Foundation”.
Use “Conquer Cancer” in conjunction with award names.
Use Conquer Cancer in titles/subtitles/captions

Addresses

Write out all address abbreviations, such as “Street,” “Avenue,” “Suite,” and so on.
Use the Post Office abbreviation for a state when it is part of a complete address that includes ZIP code. (Otherwise, write out the name of the state.)
Correct: American Society of Clinical Oncology

2318 Mill Road, Suite 800, Alexandria, VA 22314

Incorrect: Alexandria, Virginia (VA should be abbreviated).

United States

Write out “United States” when referring to the country as a noun; use “U.S.” (with periods) when an adjective. Same rule for U.K.
Correct: - The U.S. census is carried out every 10 years.
The census is carried out every 10 years in the United States.

Definitions

Cancer:

Diseases in which abnormal cells divide and grow unchecked. Cancer can spread from its original site to other parts of the body and can also be fatal if not treated adequately.

Carcinoma:

Any of the various types of cancerous tumors that form in the epithelial tissue, the tissue forming the outer layer of the body surface and lining the digestive tract and other hollow structures. Examples of this kind of cancer include breast, lung, and prostate cancer.

Designations

Include “in” in place designations.
Correct: Dr. Angela Smith is Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology and director of Hematological Malignancies Clinical Research at the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center, University of Rochester Medical Center, in Rochester, New York.

That way, we can consistently have a comma between the institution and the city/state: University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York.

Dictionary

Use Merriam-Webster for non-medical terms. www.m-w.com

Drug Names and Other Proprietary Names

Use the generic name of drugs; the proprietary name (with an initial capital letter and trademark symbol) may be used in parentheses after the first use.

Example: The patient received cetuximab( Erbitux®).

When drug names are part of a clinical trial title as in First-line in Lung Cancer with Erbitux (FLEX), it is not necessary to spell out the individual drugs immediately after the first mention of the acronym).
Do not use abbreviations for drugs used as single agents. For combination chemotherapy regimens, write out at first mention with abbreviation in parentheses or set off by em dashes and use the abbreviation subsequently.

Correct:

- During yesterday’s Gastrointestinal (Colorectal) Cancer Oral Session, adjuvant therapy with FOLFOX—a regimen of oxaliplatin, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), and leucovorin (LV)—was reported to significantly improve 3-year disease-free survival.
- During yesterday’s Gastrointestinal (Colorectal) Cancer Oral Session, adjuvant therapy with a regimen of oxaliplatin, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), and leucovorin (FOLFOX) was reported to significantly improve 3-year disease-free survival.

Here is a helpful site to check spellings of drug names: www.chemocare.com/bio and http://www.cancer.gov/drugdictionary/

Editor-in-Chief

Includes hyphens

Ellipsis Points

Insert a space before, between, and after ellipsis points . . .
However, if the words that precede an ellipsis constitute a grammatically complete sentence, place a period at the end of the last word before the ellipsis, followed by a space and then 3 periods, separated by spaces:

Correct: I no longer have a strong enough political base. . . .

Incorrect: I no longer have a strong enough political base . . .

Words appearing after ellipses that are from the middle of a sentence should be lower case.

Correct: “This movie is . . . extraordinary.”

When quotes are excerpted from different paragraphs:
- Place an ellipsis after the first paragraph, but not before the next paragraph. If the first words of the second paragraph are omitted, then begin the second paragraph with three ellipses.
- A second reason why the delegation and sharing of cancer patient care by a team built on mutual respect is important for oncologists is avoidance of professional burnout. . . .

. . . However, coming back to the community oncologist comments in Boston, I now see that the current phrase popular in many circles of patient-centric care, worthy as that concept is in its many interpretations, may be conceptually incomplete.

En Dash

Okay to use dash (hyphen) instead of en-dash.
Use the en-dash to separate ranges of times: 7:00 AM–9:00 AM

Em Dash

Use em dashes to set off clauses that require more emphasis or distinction than a comma. Do not use spaces around em dashes.

Example: “The advent of targeted therapies against specific—and often uncommon—molecular subtypes of cancer has made timely recruitment of sufficient numbers of patients even more challenging.”

Figures

Fig., Figs., (Fig., Figs.) — Note periods. Use “Figure” at start of sentence.

Genes and Proteins

Use italics for genes, including in headlines.
Best practice is to query author to distinguish genes from proteins, human from mouse models (mouse genes are in lower case, but italics). Confusion can arise because, for example, HER2 can be a gene or a protein.
Do not use italics for proteins, antigens and receptors.
Genes and protein do not have to be defined at first mention. Always use abbreviation for genes and proteins at second mention (defer to authors’ preference about whether to define at first mention).

Greek Letters

Use Greek letters at first mention and all subsequent mentions, EXCEPT:

Spell out Greek letters in reference titles.
Spell out Greek letters at first mention of interferons and interleukins and use abbreviations with Greek letter in subsequent mentions.
epoetin alfa and epoetin gamma are always spelled out, at first mention, and subsequently.

For a list of common Greek letter usage, expansions and abbreviations, click here.

HER2

Spell HER2 with all capital letters and no space/dash between the letters and the number.

Correct: HER2

Incorrect: Her-2.

- Note: Always double-check to see if the reference to HER2 is for the HER2 gene or protein, to determine whether to italicize or not.

Hyphen

Use a hyphen for an adjective-noun combination used as a preceding modifier. Put another way, To avoid ambiguity, use hyphens in temporary compounds that precede the nouns they modify:

Example:

- Early-stage cancer
- high-dose chemotherapy
- high-quality care
- first-line treatment
- combined-modality therapy,
- end-of-life issues,
- quality-of-life survey.

EXCEPTION: No hyphen in “health care system.”

Ages

Use “younger than” or “older than” NOT “less than,” “more than,” etc.
Use a hyphen for ages only when used as a preceding modifier.
Correct: “47-year-old woman,”
- Also Correct: “The woman is 47 years old.”
- Also correct: “the woman, age 47 years.”
When using “age” in a sentence, age always come before value, so that: “the patients were all younger than age five,” NOT, “five years of age.”

Numbers

Hyphenate number-unit modifier combinations:

five-year progression-free survival
5-mg dose

Do not use a hyphen to connote range. Always spell it out.

Example: three to four days.

No Hyphen with “Ly” adjectives. Example: “widely used.”

Close up most prefixes

anti- (antiangiogenic, antitumor; but anti-tobacco, anti-inflammatory, anti-smoking)
bi (bimonthly)
co- (coauthor, comorbidity; but co-investigator)
in- (inoperable, instability)
multi- (multidisciplinary, multiagent; but multi-institutional)
non- (nonmember, nonprofit, noncolorectal, noninvasive, nonsmoker)
on- (onsite, ongoing, online)
peri- (perioperative)
pre- (precancerous, preoperative)
post- (postfellowship, postoperative; but post-test)
semi- (semiannual, semiopaque)
sub- (suboptimum, subspecialty)

EXCEPTION: Omit the hyphen when including it might look awkward, as in the case of two vowels in a row, for example, “intra-abdominal.”

The following common prefixes are not joined by hyphens:
ante-, anti-, bi-, co-, contra-, counter-, de-, extra-, infra-, inter-, intra-, micro-, mid-, multi-, non-, over-, pre-, post-, pro-, pseudo-, re-, semi-, sub-, super-, supra-, trans-, tri-, ultra-, un-, under-.

Exception: Include a hyphen when omitting might look awkward, as in the case of two vowels in a row, for example, “intra-abdominal,” “de-identify

Exception: Include hyphens after the prefixes above except when they precede a proper noun, a capitalized word, or an abbreviation.

Example: preexisting, counterproductive, pro-African initiatives, post-2005 ruling, mid-Atlantic, intra-abdominal

Hyphenate cross- in most uses as an adjective (cross-check data, cross-over design); check Webster’s for absolute accuracy. Note cross section, cross validation as nouns.
Hyphenate all self-, ex-, and all- compounds.

Example: self-assessment, all-knowing

Institutions

Individuals are “of” – not “from” – an institution: Nancy E. Davidson, MD, of Johns Hopkins University
We are now capitalizing “the” for certain institutions. See Meeting Affiliation pub list.

Common institutions:

Johns Hopkins University (Johns, not John or John’s)
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (note they removed the hyphen)
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (note hyphen)
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (no possessive on “Jude”)
Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (note hyphen)
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center (no hyphen)
CancerCare (note italics)

Journal of Clinical Oncology, Journal of Oncology Practice, and Journal of Global Oncology

On first mention, always spell out the whole name in italics.
Example: the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO).
Rules about using articles (the, an, etc.) before JCO and JOP title:
Use an article at first mention:
- Example: “The Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) is a leading . . .”
After that, even when JCOappears at the beginning of the sentence, do not use articles:
- Example: While reading JOP, she lost her glasses.
Exception: when the journal qualifies a singular noun, an article should be used.
- Example:
  - A 2020 JCO study
  - The JCO Editorial Board
  - A JCO podcast

However, when the noun is plural, the article can be omitted:

- Example: “I was listening to JCO podcasts, which are wonderfully entertaining.”

Members-only

This change from Members’ only was made in July 2009.
Also, do not capitalize the word “member/s.” This change from Members’ only was made in July 2009.
Exception: If “Members” is capitalized in marketing material, keep as is.

Names of Active ASCO Members

Always confirm names and degrees using membership database and legitimate online sources. Be sure to note use of middle initial and degrees (some people have more than one, and not everyone is an MD). See “Abbreviations” for note on additional designations (FACP, etc.)
Example: “Al B. Benson III, MD, of Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University”
For pull-out quote attributions, captions, and quote attributions in text, use your best judgment when it comes to use of middle initials. “I hate cancer,” said Dr. Mary Smith, as opposed to “I hate cancer,” said Mary J. Smith, MD.

Bios

At first mention of doctor, write out full name, including middle name, followed by credentials. After that, write Dr. So-and-So.
- Example: Ellen Smith, MD, MPH, is launching a new initiative. The initiative, said Dr. Smith, will bring greater awareness to patients’ needs.
It’s preferred to mention the division or department before the larger institution.
- Preferred: Anil K. Chaturvedi, PhD, is an investigator in the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics at National Cancer Institute.
- Less preferred: Anil K. Chaturvedi, PhD, is an investigator at National Cancer Institute in the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics.
Always capitalize divisions and departments. Ex: “Dr. Smiles is Chief of the Section of Oncology and Hematology and chair of the Department of Internal Medicine.”
Include “in” in place designations.
- Correct: Dr. Angela Smith is Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology and director of Hematological Malignancies Clinical Research at the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center, University of Rochester Medical Center, in Rochester, New York.
Ensure that names are set off from academic degrees with a comma, degrees are set off from affiliation with a comma, and affiliation is set off from next portion of sentence with a comma. (John Jones, MD, of Oncology University, stated…)

Nouns as Verbs

Do not use the following noun as verbs
Chair (“He served as Chair of the Scientific Program Committee” NOT “He Chaired the Scientific Program Committee.”)

Numbers

Write out numbers zero to nine; use numerals for the number 10 and higher. This includes numbers used in reference to units of time and mathematical relationships (four minutes, 18 days, five-fold).
Spell out greater and less than in text; do not use symbols (< , >), except in p value and charts.
Use a numeral with a symbol and abbreviated unit of measure (5%, < 4 mm). Put a space between number and mathematical symbol, except for %.
- Correct: 4 mm
- Incorrect: four mm
Always use the % symbol—5%, NOT, five percent—unless at the beginning of a sentence.
Use a numeral with an abbreviated unit of measure: 2 mg, NOT 2 milligrams.
Use a 0 before the decimal point for values less than 1 (p < 0.005)
Write out fractions and use a hyphen (one-third, three-quarters).
Use a comma for numbers after 999 (1,000).
Spell out numbers at the beginning of a sentence (Sixty-three patients…)
For numbers in parentheses, use a hyphen to show range: (4%-6%)

Patients

Patients with Cancer

Never write “cancer patients”; rewrite as either “patients with cancer” (those actively being treated) or “people with cancer” or “survivors”

Don’t Dehumanize Patients

Do not dehumanize patients by describing them with an adjective that actually describes their disease, as in “stage IIIB patients” (instead, write “patients with stage IIIB disease”) or their treatment, as in “chemotherapy patients” (instead, write “patients who received chemotherapy”).
Do not use the adjective form of diseases or conditions alone to refer to a person, as in “12 diabetics were included,” instead: “12 patients with diabetes . . .”
“Elderly patients” is acceptable, but “patients older than age 60” is preferred when possible.

Do not use “the elderly” as a noun.

Use “risk for patients” rather than “risk in patients.”

Treat/Manage

Use the word “treat” when referring to patients, as in “the experimental drug was used to treat six patients”; use the word “manage” only when referring to the disease, as in “the experimental drug was used to manage breast cancer in six patients.”

Quotation Marks

Place a period or comma inside the quotation mark, and place a semicolon outside the quotation mark.
If a question mark ends a quote, do not put a comma after.
- Example: “Are these patients at a higher risk?” asked Dr. Jones.
Use “smart quotes,” not straight hash marks.

Radiologic versus Radiographic

"Radiologic" pertains to the radiation and "radiographic" pertains to the film.

Registration, Trademark, Copyright Symbols

The following require symbols at first mention only:

ASCO-SEP®
Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (no symbol), QOPI®
Best of ASCO® meetings
Susan G. Komen®
Cancer.Net®
CancerLinQ®

For non-ASCO products or organizations, use your best judgment to determine if registration or trademark symbol should be used.

Trademark or copyright symbols of any type should not be used in page titles and other specifically web-based metadata like alt titles. These symbols can interfere with URL resolution.

NOTE: There is no legal obligation for publishers to include trademark symbols. For scientific and educational content, avoid use of trademark symbols.

Stages, Grades and Phase

Use Roman numerals for phase of clinical trials (phase II trial) and for stage of disease (stage II lung cancer).

EXCEPTION: International Neuroblastoma Staging System uses Arabic (not roman) numerals for disease stage (1, 2, 3, 4, 4s)

Use Arabic numerals for grades of adverse events/tumor grade (grade 3 toxicity)
Staging abbreviations (T = tumor, N = node, M = metastasis) are acceptable—spaces should not be used in between (Example: T1N3M3 disease)

State/Regional Affiliates

Capitalize names of State/Regional Affiliates and include acronym at first mention:

Example: Members of the Denali Oncology Group (DOG) participated in a workshop.

Complete list of affiliate’s is available at www.asco.org/stateaffiliates.

Statistical Language

Referring to patient populations in trials:

“Delete all instances of “n=”
- Correct: “The 230 patients in group A were treated with radiation”
- Also Correct: Group A was treated with radiation (230 patients).”
- Incorrect: “Group A was treated with radiation (n = 230).”

p values

Present p value in this format:

(HR 16.5, 95% CI [3.3, 82.9]; p < 0.001)

Make sure there is a space before and after the “p,” that the “p” is lowercase, and that the “p” is not in italics (p = 0.0001 NOT p=0.001)
If CI stands alone (check Breast Highlights): (95% CI:1.15, 2.19)
If the word “significantly” is used, there must be a p value (find on slides, if necessary). Can delete “significantly” if necessary.
Make sure to insert spaces around signs of an inequality.
Versus/vs.

- Can use the abbreviation in text but “compared with” is preferred

- Use the abbreviation in parentheses (67% vs. 37%)

Symbols

Use words instead of symbols such as +, >, and < in text unless the article is primarily scientific (SHOM, CCO, Expert Analysis), as in “estrogen receptor-positive disease” and “patients younger than 40 years.”
- For ER2+/- , spell out at first mention: “estrogen receptor-positive” immediately followed by abbreviation plus “positive”: (ER-positive). Use ER-positive abbreviation after that.
- For HR+/-, Spell out at first mention—hormone receptor-negative (HR-) tumors—immediately followed by abbreviation in parentheses, (HR-negative). Use abbreviation after that.
Example: “The patient had a hormone receptor-negative (HR-negative) tumor.”
Do not spell out HER2 or HER4
Preferred style is to spell out positive/negative symbols for:
- IHC-positive or IGH- negative
- HIV-positive
- CD4-positive or similar CD types

Titles

Discussed above under “Capitalization.”

Unbiased Language

Avoid Sexist Language
Use chairperson, spokesperson

Language Referring to Racial or Ethnic Groups

Use the following acceptable terms for racial or ethnic groups: white (not Caucasian), black (not African American), Asian, American Indian, Hispanic.

Do not use a racial or ethnic adjective without a noun.
Correct: “The prevalence is higher in the black population.”
Incorrect: “The prevalence is higher in blacks.”

Virtual Language

See “Nouns and Verbs” Above.

Websites (ASCO Properties)

URLs should be lower case, BUT capitalize all ASCO websites:

ASCO.org
ASCOconnection.org
Cancer.Net
JCO.org
JOPASCO.org

EXCEPTION: If the ASCO URL has slashes in it, the whole URL should be in lower case.

Example: cancer.net/coping-and-emotions