As many as 50% of patients with cancer receive treatment with radiation therapy with the goal of cure or reducing pain and other symptoms. During a presentation at the inaugural ONS Bridge™ virtual conference, Sotiri Stathakis, PhD, DABR, offered nurses insights into the field from the perspective of a medical physicist.
Patients who receive bone marrow transplantations require vigilance for complications such as graft versus host disease, opportunistic infections, and febrile neutropenia. During a presentation for the inaugural ONS Bridge™ virtual conference, Barbara E. Wenger, DNP, APRN, AOCNS®, CRNI, of UCHealth Metro, and Stephanie Armstrong, DNP, AGNP, NP-C, of Froedtert Hospital Clinical Cancer Center, described interventions to improve care quality in the BMT population.
Resources that can be used by nurses and other oncology healthcare professionals, patients, and policymakers to improve the care of patients with cancer, were recently launched by the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) in its first set of five systematically reviewed clinical practice ONS Guidelines™ for managing cancer treatment-related side effects.
Because of treatment effects on hormones, women with breast cancer and men with prostate cancer have an increased risk of frequent and severe hot flashes after treatment. As many as 80% of patients across both genders experience the symptom, which can have an impact on sleep, mood, energy, and sexual function.
On September 4, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to pralsetinib (Gavreto™) for adult patients with metastatic, RET fusion-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) as detected by an FDA approved test.
The miR-181a microRNA may turn off two genes and lead to the development of high-grade serous ovarian cancer, researchers reported in Nature Communications. The finding is significant because not much is known about how ovarian cancer develops and it’s difficult to detect in its earlier stages.
On September 8, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it did not approve atezolizumab (Tecentriq®) in combination with paclitaxel for treatment of breast cancer after a clinical trial studying the use of atezolizumab and paclitaxel in patients with previously untreated inoperable locally advanced or metastatic triple negative breast cancer (mTNBC) showed the drug combination did not work to treat the disease.
Distress, uncertainty, and barriers to care are common experiences for patients with cancer and survivors. Yingzi Zhang, PhD, RN, of the School of Nursing at the University of Rochester in New York, and Jin Young Seo, PhD, WHNP-BC, RN, of Hunter College in New York, NY, reported on their research on quality of life and access to care in vulnerable patient populations.
Exposure to hazardous drugs puts healthcare workers at risk for myriad adverse effects. Until recently, consistent safety information for HD administration and disposal has been lacking. However, with USP Chapter <800> going into effect in December 2019, U.S. Pharmacopeia has changed the landscape of HD safety guidelines.
Strong leadership is critical in redesigning health care—and nurse leaders in particular need to take responsibility for identifying problems and areas of waste, devising and implementing a plan for improvement, tracking this improvement over time, and making necessary adjustments to realize established goals.