Leita, a 42-year-old patient with locally advanced pancreatic cancer, was treated with 5-fluorouracil, irinotecan, and oxaliplatin followed by capecitabine and radiation therapy. After she completed initial treatment, a computed tomography scan conducted in preparation for a possible surgical resection revealed metastatic liver lesions. Leita’s surgery was cancelled, and she began second-line therapy with gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel.
You and your colleagues innovate every day—providing individual patient cases, developing best practices, and collaborating on other shared experiences. ONS Voice articles and its new video series, My Practice, can help you disseminate your expertise and guidance to other oncology nurses. Tell us your topic ideas, and ONS Publications staff will help you either write an article or create a video resource illustrating your experience.
On September 15, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reported Baxter Healthcare Corporation’s recall of Clearlink basic solution set with Duovent because of reports of leaks. FDA identified it as a class I recall, the most serious type of recall, where use of the set may cause serious injuries or death.
Post-traumatic stress disorder can develop after individuals experience an event that goes beyond their usual stressors, affecting a broad range of people. It is associated with exposure to death or threatened death, including a sudden, catastrophic event due to a medical incident. A cancer diagnosis’s significant psychological stressors can affect not only patients, but their caregivers as well.
As oncology biomarker testing becomes a routine part of clinical practice, so does first-line use of their associated targeted therapies such as monoclonal antibodies, checkpoint inhibitors, and tyrosine kinase inhibitors.
Recognizing the 60th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s historic moonshot speech, on September 12, 2022, President Joe Biden delivered an update on his relaunched Cancer Moonshot Initiative and progress made on its moonshot goal of “ending cancer as we know it.”
Patients with lung, pancreatic, breast, brain, urinary tract, or uterine cancers may be more likely to develop new-onset type 2 diabetes after their cancer diagnosis, according to research findings published in Diabetes Care, and those who went on to develop type 2 diabetes experienced poorer overall health outcomes.
The cancer survivorship program team at the University of Pennsylvania Abramson Cancer Center is conducting numerous research projects such as cancer treatment’s late effects, survivors’ quality of life and health behaviors, telemedicine for survivorship visits, and even an artificial intelligence–powered, mobile phone–based program to support patient adherence to guidance from survivorship visits.
Not understanding terms like deductible, copay, premium, coinsurance, and out-of-pocket maximum prevents many Americans from selecting a health insurance plan that meets their financial needs. Fewer than 40% of patients enrolled in high-deductible healthcare plans engage in effective financial behaviors, such as comparing prices or discussing costs with clinicians. High costs are a barrier for many patients and survivors to access high-quality cancer and survivorship care.
On September 8, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reported that cancers, including squamous cell carcinoma and various lymphomas, may develop in the capsule that forms around breast implants.