On October 17, 2016, Vice President Joe Biden addressed President Obama and the rest of the United States as he presented the National Cancer Moonshot taskforce’s report of the work that’s been accomplished since its inception in January 2016. The report highlights a number of strategic initiatives, including the 10 recommended areas of scientific advancement the Blue Ribbon Panel identified in September.
Oncology nurses are intimately familiar with side effects related to chemotherapy. Advice for managing chemotherapy symptoms such as fatigue, diarrhea, dyspnea, skin toxicities, and increased risk of infection can be found in ONS’s Putting Evidence Into Practice (PEP) resources. However, immunotherapy treatments often offer similar side effects that are treated very differently from those associated with traditional treatments.
On October 18, 2016, FDA approved atezolizumab (TECENTRIQ, Genentech Oncology) for the treatment of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease progressed during or following platinum-containing chemotherapy. Patients with EGFR or ALK genomic tumor aberrations should have disease progression on FDA-approved therapy for these aberrations prior to receiving atezolizumab.
On October 18, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration modified the indication for erlotinib (TARCEVA, Astellas Pharm Global Development Inc.) for treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) to limit use to patients whose tumors have specific epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations.
Ben is Oliver’s usual infusion room nurse; he and Oliver share a love of Pokemon Go and often roam the halls looking for particular Pokemon. Oliver’s mom, Claudia, is divorced, and Ben has mentioned that he is single as well. One evening, Ben receives a Facebook friend request from Claudia.
Although nearly 60% of all patients with early-stage breast cancer are given adjuvant chemotherapy, only 2%–15% of them receive clinical benefit, according to research published in the 2016 American Society of Clinical Oncology Educational Book.
I’m an oncology certified nurse, nursing supervisor, coworker, friend, wife, daughter, and mother, but most importantly, I’m a human being.
As the national presidential election approaches, a number of states will emerge as battleground states, in which the Democratic and Republican nominees for president have similar levels of support among voters. As follows, the winner of these states will win the election, making each vote extremely important.
In just seven years, the rates of women who received prophylactic bilateral mastectomies after a diagnosis of unilateral breast cancer skyrocketed—though many don't require bilateral mastectomy. So what’s causing the increase in unnecessary surgery?
A study presented at the 2016 ASCO annual meeting confirmed findings that led to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of palbociclib in combination with letrozole for first-line treatment in women with estrogen receptor -positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer.
