SITC Guidelines

“Advances in cancer immunotherapy are occurring rapidly across the spectrum of malignancies, and as treatment options and complexity increase, so does the need to disseminate information on best practices.” said SITC President Mario Sznol, MD.

MILWAUKEE (PRWEB)
November 17, 2020

The Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), the world’s leading member-driven organization dedicated solely to cancer immunotherapy, has published a clinical practice guideline specific to the use of immunotherapy for acute leukemia, a type of blood cancer.

“The Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) clinical practice guideline on immunotherapy for the treatment of acute leukemia,” was developed by an expert panel of leaders in the fields of hematology, oncology, hematopathology, oncology nursing and cancer patient advocacy from across the United States. This immunotherapy-specific guideline provides hematologists, oncologists, and other advanced practice providers a clinical roadmap to provide optimal care for patients who have acute leukemia.

“Immunotherapies including blinatumomab and tisagenlecleucel have demonstrated deep and durable responses for the treatment of acute lymphoid leukemia and a number of emerging options are showing encouraging results in clinical trials for patients with acute myeloid leukemia as well,” said Martin Tallman, MD, co-chair of the SITC Acute leukemia Immunotherapy Guideline Expert Panel. “Now that more immunotherapies are FDA-approved and becoming available for broader populations of patients, our SITC expert panel developed this manuscript to help address the challenging questions that medical hematologists and oncologists sometime face when incorporating various immunotherapy agents and regimens into their practice.”

Published in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (JITC), the society’s open access, peer-reviewed online journal, this guideline is an update to the society’s previous 2016 manuscript on hematologic malignancies, which also included lymphoma and multiple myeloma. SITC published a standalone guideline on multiple myeloma on July 12, 2020, and a manuscript devoted to lymphoma is forthcoming.

The SITC Cancer Immunotherapy Guidelines are a collection of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) developed by leading experts to help hematologists and oncologists determine when and how to best use immunotherapy to treat their patients. The guidelines cover immunotherapy treatment recommendations, toxicity management and considerations for optimizing patient quality of life. SITC has published CPGs for bladder carcinoma, cutaneous melanoma, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, multiple myeloma, non-small cell lung cancer, prostate cancer and renal cell carcinoma. Additional guidelines are in development covering acute leukemia and lymphoma, breast cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, non-melanoma skin cancer and immune-related adverse events.

“Advances in cancer immunotherapy are occurring rapidly across the spectrum of malignancies, and as treatment options and complexity increase, so does the need to disseminate information on best practices. SITC is committed to providing resources for clinicians that lead to the best possible outcomes for patients,” said SITC President Mario Sznol, MD. “Our society’s Cancer Immunotherapy Guidelines are developed by experts in the treatment of the respective malignancies and I believe are an invaluable resource for clinicians. I look forward to our continued expansion of this important series.”

In addition to the published manuscript, SITC is also offering several different opportunities to help clinicians understand and implement the guidelines into their practice, including live webinars and on-demand modules hosted on the SITC website. SITC will host a live, free webinar during which attendees will be able to learn more about the treatment recommendations within the acute leukemia guidelines and ask questions of expert faculty. A date and registration information will be announced in the coming weeks. Click here to view on-demand SITC Cancer Immunotherapy Guidelines webinars.

About SITC

Established in 1984, the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) is a nonprofit organization of medical professionals dedicated to improving cancer patient outcomes by advancing the development, science and application of cancer immunotherapy and tumor immunology. SITC is comprised of influential basic and translational scientists, practitioners, health care professionals, government leaders and industry professionals around the globe. Through educational initiatives that foster scientific exchange and collaboration among leaders in the field, SITC aims to one day make the word “cure” a reality for cancer patients everywhere. Learn more about SITC, our educational offerings and other resources at sitcancer.org and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube.

About JITC

Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (JITC) is the official open access, peer-reviewed online journal of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer featuring an impact factor of 10.252. The journal publishes high-quality articles on all aspects of tumor immunology and cancer immunotherapy, on subjects across the basic science-translational-clinical spectrum. JITC publishes original research articles, literature reviews, position papers and practice guidelines, and case reports; invited commentaries may also be commissioned by the journal editors. These articles, freely accessible at jitc.bmj.com, make JITC the leading forum for tumor immunology and cancer immunotherapy research. Follow JITC on Twitter @jitcancer.

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