Guidelines for the investigation and management of mantle cell lymphoma.

The guideline group was selected to be representative of UKbased medical experts and patients representatives. Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE and NCBI Pubmed were searched systematically for publications in English from 1980 to 2011 using the MeSH subheading ‘lymphoma, mantle cell’ and ‘lymphoma, mantle cell’ as a keyword, as well as all subheadings. In addition, all references to mantle cell lymphoma in the World Health Organization Classification of Tumours of Haematopoietic and Lymphoid Tissue (Swerdlow et al, 2008) and the British Committee for Standards in Haematology (BCSH) Guideline: Best Practice in Lymphoma Diagnosis and Reporting (Parker et al, 2010) have been included. The writing group produced the draft guideline, which was subsequently revised by consensus by members of the Haemato-oncology Task Force of the BCSH. The guideline was then reviewed by a sounding board of approximately 50 UK haematologists, the BCSH and the British Society for Haematology Committee and comments incorporated where appropriate. The ‘GRADE’ system was used to quote levels and grades of evidence, details of which can be found in Appendix I. The objective of this guideline is to provide healthcare professionals with clear guidance on the investigation and management of patients with mantle cell lymphoma. The guidance may not be appropriate to patients with other lymphoma sub-types and in all cases individual patient circumstances may dictate an alternative approach.