With more than 15.5 million Americans living beyond cancer, it’s no surprise that more attention is being paid to survivorship than ever before. Once treatment ends, patients can be thrown back into a world after cancer with little or no attention paid to their concerns about recurrence, late effects from treatment, how to follow up with their future care, and a great many more unknowns.

On May 1, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted accelerated approval to durvalumab for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma who have disease progression during or following platinum-containing chemotherapy or who have disease progression within 12 months of neoadjuvant or adjuvant treatment with platinum-containing chemotherapy.  

Jay is a 62-year-old man with newly diagnosed, stage IIIA (T3, N1), unresectable, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that tested negative for ALK, EGFR, and KRAS mutations. Additionally, PD-L1 (programed death receptor ligand) expression was less than 30%. Jay is symptomatic with a persistent cough, unintentional weight loss, and fatigue.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has permitted marketing of the Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution (PIPS, Philips Medical Systems Nederland B.V.), as an aid to the pathologist to review and interpret digital images of surgical pathology slides prepared from formalin-fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissue.

On April 13, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) removed the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) requirements for the use of Epogen/Procrit and Aranesp to treat patients with anemia due to associated myelosuppressive chemotherapy.

Beginning in January 2018, oncology nurses will see changes to the way their patients’ cancers are staged with the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) system. According to a presentation at the National Comprehensive Cancer Network annual conference in March 2017, when the AJCC 8th Edition Cancer Staging System takes effect on January 1, 2018, more cases may be classified as stage I, especially for patients with breast cancer.

Because April is Oral Cancer Awareness Month, it’s important to understand the link between human papillomavirus (HPV) and oropharyngeal cancers. This form of oral cancer occurs in the middle part of the throat, soft palate, base of the tongue, and tonsils. HPV contributes to more than 70% of all oropharyngeal cancers, with more than half of these being related to HPV type 16. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) noted that approximately 9,000 new cases of oropharyngeal cancers are diagnosed annually and are typically four times more common in men than women.

On March 13, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ribociclib (KISQALI^®, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp.), a cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 inhibitor, in combination with an aromatase inhibitor as initial endocrine-based therapy for the treatment of postmenopausal women with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer.

Offering personalized treatment plans to patients with cancer is one of the biggest goals for any oncology institution—big or small. ONS leaders and members have united their personal and organizational efforts to move cancer care toward personalization while still aligning the needs of patients with nationally recognized clinical guidelines. Oncology nurses consistently strive to deliver quality cancer care to their patients.

Infection represents a leading cause of death and treatment-related toxicities among patients with cancer in the United States. It stands to interfere with antineoplastic treatment plans by forcing dose modifications, delays, or discontinuation and instead turning to a less aggressive treatment plan.

Patients rely on oncology nurses to translate the world of health care. They lean heavily on our expert knowledge when undergoing treatments for cancer. It’s not simply the facts we provide—like the pros and cons of a certain treatment—it’s helping patients understand how these facts impact their lives. This knowledge allows patients nearing the end of life to make informed decisions about whether they should continue treatment or seek referral to hospice care.

The ONS clinical inbox frequently receives questions about whether nurses need to be “chemotherapy certified” to give specific chemotherapy and/or biotherapy agents.

Cicely, who is being treated for stage III colon cancer, has lost seven pounds between her first and second cycles of chemotherapy. She admits to Julie, an outpatient oncology nurse, that her nausea is well controlled but she just doesn’t feel like cooking meals anymore. What Would you do?

One of the questions that ONS commonly receives in the clinical inbox is whether nurses who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or trying to conceive can safely administer or handle chemotherapy and other hazardous drugs.