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Increasing knowledge concerning the biology of hematologic malignancies as well as the role of the immune system in the control of these diseases has led to the development and approval of immunotherapies that are resulting in impressive clinical responses. Therefore, the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) convened a hematologic malignancy Cancer Immunotherapy Guidelines panel consisting of physicians, nurses, patient advocates, and patients to develop consensus recommendations for the clinical application of immunotherapy for patients with multiple myeloma, lymphoma, and acute leukemia. These recommendations were developed following the previously established process based on the Institute of Medicine’s clinical practice guidelines. In doing so, a systematic literature search was performed for high-impact studies from 2004 to 2014 and was supplemented with further literature as identified by the panel. The consensus panel met in December of 2014 with the goal to generate consensus recommendations for the clinical use of immunotherapy in patients with hematologic malignancies. During this meeting, consensus panel voting along with discussion were used to rate and review the strength of the supporting evidence from the literature search. These consensus recommendations focus on issues related to patient selection, toxicity management, clinical endpoints, and the sequencing or combination of therapies. Overall, immunotherapy is rapidly emerging as an effective therapeutic strategy for the management of hematologic malignances. Evidence-based consensus recommendations for its clinical application are provided and will be updated as the field evolves.

Authors: Michael Boyiadzis, Michael R. Bishop, Rafat Abonour, Kenneth C. Anderson, Stephen M. Ansell, David Avigan, Lisa Barbarotta, Austin John Barrett, Koen Van Besien, P. Leif Bergsagel, Ivan Borrello, Joshua Brody, Jill Brufsky, Mitchell Cairo, Ajai Chari, Adam Cohen, Jorge Cortes, Stephen J. Forman, Jonathan W. Friedberg, Ephraim J. Fuchs, Steven D. Gore, Sundar Jagannath, Brad S. Kahl, Justin Kline, James N. Kochenderfer, Larry W. Kwak, Ronald Levy, Marcos de Lima, Mark R. Litzow, Anuj Mahindra, Jeffrey Miller, Nikhil C. Munshi, Robert Z. Orlowski, John M. Pagel, David L. Porter, Stephen J. Russell, Karl Schwartz, Margaret A. Shipp, David Siegel, Richard M. Stone, Martin S. Tallman, John M. Timmerman, Frits Van Rhee, Edmund K. Waller, Ann Welsh, Michael Werner, Peter H. Wiernik, and Madhav V. Dhodapkar

Published as a position article and guidelines in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (2016) 4:90.

Disclaimer: Due to the rapidly-evolving field of cancer immunotherapy, some of the content on this page may be out of date. For current information from SITC on cancer immunotherapy, please visit connected.sitcancer.org.