The first evidence-based consensus statement on tumor immunotherapy for the treatment of
patients with
bladder cancer was developed by the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) and published online by the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, in 2017.
Immunotherapeutic drugs approved for the treatment of bladder cancer include several checkpoint inhibitors and the immunotherapeutic vaccine, Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG). This consensus statement provides expert evidence-based recommendations for the use of these immunotherapies, including recommendations for patient selection, toxicity management, clinical end points and sequencing or combination of therapies.
SITC Cancer Immunotherapy Guidelines (CIGs) are a collection of clinical practice guidelines developed by multi-disciplinary panels of experts who draw from their own practical experience as well as evidence in the published literature and clinical trial data to develop evidence- and consensus-based recommendations. SITC uses as a model the Institute of Medicine's 2011 "Standards for Developing Trustworthy Clinical Practice Guidelines" to ensure the recommendations are unbiased, transparent and balanced and will aid oncologists in effective clinical decision-making concerning patient selection, toxicity management, response evaluation, and the sequencing or combination of therapies, among other topics.