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Background: Malignant bowel obstruction (MBO) is a frequent presentation of advanced abdominal malignancy. Despite the frequency of MBO and the availability of NCCN Guidelines for its management, clinicians struggle to create a personalized care plan accounting for a patient’s current condition, prognosis, and goals of care. The aim of this project is to develop a discussion tool to implement on admission to ensure realistic prognostication and appropriate involvement of the patient, caregivers, and multidisciplinary team in treatment decisions. Methods: At our tertiary care center, a multidisciplinary team composed of surgical oncologists, medical oncologists, palliative care specialists, hospitalists, social workers, and nutritionists developed an algorithm to implement when a patient is admitted with MBO. The algorithm was influenced by the NCCN Guidelines for palliative care but was designed as a single-page checklist that could be easily executed by all team members. Results: The MBO admission checklist is divided into 4 sections. The general assessment section includes information about the etiology, severity, and reversibility of the current and past MBO. Also, the patient’s resuscitation and functional status are reviewed. The cancer care coordination/communication section covers the patient’s oncological history and estimated lifespan, as well as the need for further coordination of care and a goals of care discussion. The subsequent portion covers the management plan, with specific decisions resulting from a goals of care discussion as well as the need for specialized consults. The medical, procedural, and operative interventions the team and patient discussed as options are also documented. A key portion is the risks and benefits discussion for each treatment modality. Lastly, the discussion about future considerations section explores the patient’s wishes for the next episode of MBO. Conclusions: The goal of this checklist is to ensure that a comprehensive discussion is held between the different services involved in a patient’s care at every admission for MBO in order to provide a personalized management plan and improve communication. The next step in our study is to assess the effectiveness of implementation of the checklist as well as its impact on patient satisfaction, quality of life, early hospice referral, and outcomes.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common pediatric malignancy. Advancements in technology that enhance our understanding of the biology of the disease, risk-adapted therapy, and enhanced supportive care have contributed to improved survival rates. However, additional clinical management is needed to improve outcomes for patients classified as high risk at presentation (eg, T-ALL, infant ALL) and who experience relapse. The NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines) for pediatric ALL provide recommendations on the workup, diagnostic evaluation, and treatment of the disease, including guidance on supportive care, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, and pharmacogenomics. This portion of the NCCN Guidelines focuses on the frontline and relapsed/refractory management of pediatric ALL.

The NCCN Guidelines for Melanoma have been significantly revised over the past few years in response to emerging data on a number of novel agents and treatment regimens. These NCCN Guidelines Insights summarize the data and rationale supporting extensive changes to the recommendations for systemic therapy in patients with metastatic or unresectable melanoma.

The NCCN Guidelines for Uveal Melanoma include recommendations for staging, treatment, and follow-up of patients diagnosed with uveal melanoma of the choroid or ciliary body. In addition, because distinguishing between uveal melanoma and benign uveal nevi is in some cases difficult, these guidelines also contain recommendations for workup of patients with suspicious pigmented uveal lesions, to clarify the tests needed to distinguish between those who should have further workup and treatment for uveal melanoma versus those with uncertain diagnosis and low risk who should to be followed and later reevaluated. These NCCN Guidelines Insights describe recommendations for treatment of newly diagnosed nonmetastatic uveal melanoma in patients who have already undergone a complete workup.

Over the past few years, the NCCN Guidelines for Melanoma: Cutaneous have been expanded to include pathways for treatment of microscopic satellitosis (added in v2.2020), and the following Principles sections: Molecular Testing (added in v2.2019), Systemic Therapy Considerations (added in v2.2020), and Brain Metastases Management (added in v3.2020). The v1.2021 update included additional modifications of these sections and notable revisions to Principles of: Pathology, Surgical Margins for Wide Excision of Primary Melanoma, Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy, Completion/Therapeutic Lymph Node Dissection, and Radiation Therapy. These NCCN Guidelines Insights discuss the important changes to pathology and surgery recommendations, as well as additions to systemic therapy options for patients with advanced disease.

The NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines) for Cutaneous melanoma have been significantly revised over the past few years in response to emerging data on immune checkpoint inhibitor therapies and BRAF-targeted therapy. This article summarizes the data and rationale supporting extensive changes to the recommendations for systemic therapy as adjuvant treatment of resected disease and as treatment of unresectable or distant metastatic disease.