Reporting quality of clinical practice guidelines on head and neck cancer: a systematic review

Head and neck cancer (HNC) comprises a heterogeneous group of cancers. In view of the distinct biological characteristics and treatment strategies, clinical physicians require high-quality clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) which could provide reliable recommendations on medical practices. We aimed to evaluate the reporting quality of CPGs in the field of HNC.

We developed rigorous search strategies before searching the domestic and international literature databases (n=568) including Medline (via PubMed), Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Wanfang as well as websites of guideline organizations (n=8) published between January 1, 2018 to July 1, 2021 for appropriate guidelines on HNC. We included all evidence-based guidelines about HNC in English or Chinese. We excluded translations, summaries and interpretations of guidelines, as well as older versions of guidelines if an updated edition was available. Data were extracted and the reporting quality was evaluated by two investigators independently guided by the Reporting Items for Practice Guidelines in Healthcare (RIGHT) checklist.

A total of 21 guidelines complied with the inclusion criteria. Items show distinctions with reporting proportions among seven RIGHT domains. The proportions of reported items in each RIGHT domain were 75.4% for basic information, 63.1% for background, 42.9% for evidence, 55.1% for recommendations, 42.9% for review and quality assurance, 26.2% for funding and declaration and management of interests, and 50.8% for other information.

The average reporting quality of the recently published guidelines for HNC was moderate. Our research would help optimize the development processes of guidelines, resulting in high-quality guidelines for healthcare professionals.