The Guidelines Project: Brazilian guidelines for acute promyelocytic leukemia

The Guidelines Project of the Associação Médica Brasileira (AMB) and of the Conselho Federal de Medicina (CFM) began in 2000 with specialist societies participating in the preparation of the texts. The guidelines are based on research and contain solid advice on the diagnosis, therapy, and prevention of diseases. Grounded in evidence-based medicine, they seek to answer specific or crucial questions regarding the disease. A review of the literature is performed and, using pre-established criteria, studies on the disease are selected and graded according to their characteristics and type. Randomized clinical trials and meta-analyses have the highest value (A). Second in importance are observational and clinical studies (B), then case reports and case series (C), and finally, publications of consensuses and opinions (D). Due to the methodology employed, current systematic reviews are clearly more relevant when compared to those written in the past. Historically, reviews were much more based on personal opinions and subject to the author’s interest, that is, more concerned with the individual point of view and based on personal experience.1 The Associação Brasileira de Hematologia, Hemoterapia e Terapia Celular (ABHH) began to participate effectively in the development of the guidelines of the AMB in 2009, with contributions by several experts as shown in Table 1; previously, the collection was limited, with fewer themes. After 2012, guidelines on several diseases were completed and published in the Revista Brasileira de Hematologia e Hemoterapia (RBHH); chronic myelogenous leukemia,2 multiple myeloma,3 and diagnosis4 and treatment of immune thrombocytopenic Editorial