The Current State of Palliative Care for Patients Cared for at Leading US Cancer Centers: The 2015 NCCN Palliative Care Survey.

Background: ASCO and IOM recommend palliative care (PC) across health care settings for patients with serious illnesses, including cancer. This study provides an overview of the current availability, structure, and basic quality of PC services within NCCN Member Institutions.

Methods: A PC survey was developed by NCCN staff and a working group of PC experts from 11 NCCN Member Institutions under the auspices of the NCCN Best Practices Committee.

Palliative Care Version 1.2016.

The NCCN Guidelines for Palliative Care provide interdisciplinary recommendations on palliative care for patients with cancer. The NCCN Guidelines are intended to provide guidance to the primary oncology team on the integration of palliative care into oncology. The NCCN Palliative Care Panel's recommendations seek to ensure that each patient experiences the best quality of life possible throughout the illness trajectory.

A Formal Palliative Care Service Improves the Quality of Care in Patients with Stage IV Cancer and Bowel Obstruction.

Background: Patients with stage IV cancer and bowel obstruction present a complicated management problem. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of the palliative care service (PC) in the management of this complex disease process.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted of all patients admitted to Roswell Park Cancer Institute with stage IV cancer and bowel obstruction from 2009 to 2012 after the institution of a formal PC.

Cancer-Related Fatigue, Version 2.2015.

Cancer-related fatigue is defined as a distressing, persistent, subjective sense of physical, emotional, and/or cognitive tiredness or exhaustion related to cancer or cancer treatment that is not proportional to recent activity and interferes with usual functioning. It is one of the most common side effects in patients with cancer. Fatigue has been shown to be a consequence of active treatment, but it may also persist into posttreatment periods.

Palliative care, Version 1.2014. Featured updates to the NCCN Guidelines.

The NCCN Guidelines for Palliative Care provide interdisciplinary recommendations on palliative care for patients with cancer. These NCCN Guidelines Insights summarize the NCCN panel's discussions and guideline updates from 2013 and 2014. These include modifications/additions to palliative care screening and assessment protocols, new considerations for discussing the benefits and risks of anticancer therapy, and approaches to advance care planning.

Management of bowel obstruction in patients with stage IV cancer: predictors of outcome after surgery.

Background: Patients with stage IV cancer and bowel obstruction (BO) present a complicated management problem. We sought to determine if specific parameters could predict outcome after surgery.

Methods: Records of patients with stage IV cancer and BO treated from 1991 to 2008 were reviewed.