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Cancer Immunotherapy Guidelines Program

Cancer Immunotherapy Guidelines Oversight Committee

The Cancer Immunotherapy Guidelines Oversight Committee oversees the development of new clinical practice guidelines and updates for existing guidelines that provide guidance on the appropriate treatment algorithms and recommended administration of FDA-approved cancer immunotherapies as well as mitigating and managing adverse events.

The committee determines the policies and protocols for the general guideline development process as well as the standards the expert panels must meet to ensure the recommendations are unbiased, relevant, and facilitate clinical decision-making leading to optimal patient care.

The committee also provides strategic insights into the existing dissemination efforts such as guideline education and mobile app development as well as envisions and informs new dissemination tactics.

About the Guidelines

The SITC Cancer Immunotherapy Guidelines program is a collection of Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) 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 on when and how to use immunotherapy to help improve outcomes for patients with cancer.

These CPGs offer a vital resource for the practicing oncology community. SITC uses as a model the Institute of Medicine's 2011 "Standards for Developing Trustworthy Clinical Practice Guidelines" to ensure a fair, transparent and balanced process for creating the CPGs. Each CPG expert panel is comprised of a comprehensive mix of academic physicians and researchers, nurses, patients, and patient advocates invited from institutions across the United States.

The guidelines are reviewed on an ongoing basis to account for newly available clinical trial data and FDA approvals.

Living Guidelines - Rapid Updates to Published CPGs

In accordance with the Institute of Medicine’s Standards for Developing Trustworthy Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs), SITC CPGs undergo periodic evaluation to assess if new evidence necessitates modifications to recommendations, treatment algorithms, or other guideline content. This is done through our “SITC Living Guideline” rapid update protocols designed to ensure SITC CPGs are up-to-date with cutting-edge thinking and incorporate the leading expert guidance in cancer immunotherapy care – a vital service to treating clinicians and those along the whole cancer care continuum.  

All active SITC guidelines are reviewed at least annually for needed updates. The Expert Panel Chairs, in partnership with the SITC guideline development staff, monitor the regulatory landscape and review the available evidence to determine if updates are needed to address changes in clinical practice standards that would aid in optimizing patient care. When updates are needed, a multi-disciplinary panel of experts come together to create new and/or modify existing recommendations with the same rigor used during development of the original publication in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (JITC).  

Through the use of an innovative technology, rapid updates are swiftly integrated into our existing guidelines in a clear and concise manner. An overlay system highlights affected content and provides new text reflecting the updated Expert Panel guidance as well as important supporting information, data, and references, as applicable. The progression of the changes for the rapid updates is shown by the use of a version numbering system that accompanies each new posted update (e.g., update v1.1).

SITC Living Guideline information is provided in a number of locations to ensure broad dissemination of the rapid updates:  

• Original Publication in JITC – As detailed above, the publication with the available overlay is the primary source of update information, appearing in the sidebar and as highlighted content.  SITC guidelines are part of the guidelines and consensus statements section of JITC.
• Informational SITC CPG Web Pages – Each SITC guideline has a dedicated webpage that provides valuable information such as overview of the guideline content, an overview of rapid updates since publication, date of last review, links to companion guideline education, and more.  Find the guideline of interest by clicking on the CPG color tiles above.
• SITC CPG Mobile App – A list of the updates since publication can be found in the individual CPG “Updates” tile.  Find out more information about the app here.
• SITC Guidelines News Blog – Check this blog for guideline update announcements as well as other news relevant to SITC CPGs.
• Social Media Outlets – As new updates become available, announcements will be made on “X” and LinkedIn.  Follow the guideline hashtag #SITCGuidelines