Current treatment guidelines recommend sequential hormone therapy for patients with hormone receptor-positive (HR+) metastatic breast cancer who are not in visceral crisis and whose disease is not refractory to endocrine treatment. Second-line fulvestrant monotherapy is a treatment option for patients in whom disease progresses after first-line palbociclib.

Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) can improve patient satisfaction and potentially impact survival. However, PRO data are not well-collected outside of the research setting. Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, CT, conducting qualitative study assessed the most personally relevant PROs in women with metastatic breast cancer and observed substantial variation in patient preferences. They presented the findings at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium on December 7, 2018.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can help diagnose breast cancer, but it is costly. Leadership at the University of Washington in Bellingham developed a protocol to improve the timeliness of care, moving the time of MRI prior to surgeon evaluation, and found that it led to enhanced patient care, eliminated delays in treatment, avoided unnecessary tests, shifted appropriate care to primary-care providers, and provided all necessary data prior to initial surgical consultation. They presented the findings at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium on December 7, 2018.

Racial and regional disparities impact the incidence of, mortality from, and survival from breast cancer, but the role of other socioeconomic factors is unclear. Researchers from Fudan University in Shanghai, China, conducted a large study and found that marital status, insurance status, median household income, and residence also contribute to survival from nonmetastatic breast cancer. They presented the findings at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium on December 7, 2018.

Many women discontinue adjuvant endocrine therapy (AET) because of adverse events (AEs), and only half remain adherent at five years. Researchers from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, found that continued social support for those women may improve AET adherence. They presented the findings at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium on December 7, 2018.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented an oncology outcome measure to assess the quality of care and determine outpatient hospital payment (OP-35: Admissions and Emergency Department Visits for Patients Receiving Outpatient Chemotherapy). The measure assesses 30-day postchemotherapy rates of inpatient or emergency department (ED) events deemed “potentially avoidable” because of an association with any of the 10 CMS-defined toxicities: anemia, dehydration, diarrhea, fever, nausea, emesis, neutropenia, pain, pneumonia, or sepsis.

Nurses should initiate financial conversations with patients early and offer resources to improve access to cancer care, speakers at the ONS Center for Advocacy and Health Policy’s third annual policy summit on November 13, 2018, concluded. The event, held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, brought together nurses and industry and government experts to address the issue of financial toxicity in today’s cancer care.

During the October 2018 board meeting held at the national office, the ONS Board of Directors heard reports from leadership and status reports on research and evidence-based practice work, discussed key initiatives, received an update from the Oncology Nursing Foundation, and reviewed and approved the Society’s operating budget for 2019. Additionally, two key generative discussions focused on the ongoing implementation of ONS chapter model changes and a review and strategy session around ONS position statements.

Triple-negative breast cancer tumors are thought to be more immunogenic than other breast cancer subtypes, such as luminal A/B or human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive (HER2+) tumors. Among all breast cancers, tumors appear more commonly in the upper outer quadrant. However, it is not clear whether expression of immune response genes vary with tumor location among the different subtypes.

Few women with metastatic breast cancer live five years or longer, and predictors of long-term survival are not well understood. Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) in Pennsylvania identified demographic- and disease-specific factors related to survival and presented their findings at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium on December 6, 2018.