TY - JOUR T1 - Proposed triggers for retiring a living systematic review JF - BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine JO - BMJ EBM DO - 10.1136/bmjebm-2022-112100 SP - bmjebm-2022-112100 AU - Mohammad Hassan Murad AU - Zhen Wang AU - Haitao Chu AU - Lifeng Lin AU - Ibrahim K El Mikati AU - Joanne Khabsa AU - Elie A Akl AU - Robby Nieuwlaat AU - Holger J Schuenemann AU - Irbaz Bin Riaz Y1 - 2023/03/08 UR - http://ebm.bmj.com/content/early/2023/03/16/bmjebm-2022-112100.abstract N2 - Living systematic reviews (LSRs) are systematic reviews that are continually updated, incorporating relevant new evidence as it becomes available. LSRs are critical for decision-making in topics where the evidence continues to evolve. It is not feasible to continue to update LSRs indefinitely; however, guidance on when to retire LSRs from the living mode is not clear. We propose triggers for making such a decision. The first trigger is to retire LSRs when the evidence becomes conclusive for the outcomes that are required for decision-making. Conclusiveness of evidence is best determined based on the GRADE certainty of evidence construct, which is more comprehensive than solely relying on statistical considerations. The second trigger to retire LSRs is when the question becomes less pertinent for decision-making as determined by relevant stakeholders, including people affected by the problem, healthcare professionals, policymakers and researchers. LSRs can also be retired from a living mode when new studies are not anticipated to be published on the topic and when resources become unavailable to continue updating. We describe examples of retired LSRs and apply the proposed approach using one LSR about adjuvant tyrosine kinase inhibitors in high-risk renal cell carcinoma that we retired from a living mode and published its last update.Data sharing not applicable as no datasets generated and/or analysed for this study. No data are available. ER -