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Career Changes Are Challenging, but Hold On to Hope

nursing professional development

Career Changes Are Challenging, but Hold On to Hope

Mentors Changed My Career at Every Stage, From New Grad to Leader

nursing professional development

Mentors Changed My Career at Every Stage, From New Grad to Leader

The COVID-19 Pandemic Fast-Tracked Our Growth as Nurses

The COVID-19 Pandemic Fast-Tracked Our Growth as Nurses

When Everything Still Isn't Enough

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When Everything Still Isn't Enough

The Case of the Cord Blood Match

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The Case of the Cord Blood Match

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Racial Minorities Receive More Aggressive EOL Ovarian Cancer Care

During the last month of life, non-White patients are more likely to receive aggressive care with little to no focus on palliative or end-of-life (EOL) care for their ovarian cancer, researchers reported in Cancer.

Managing COVID-19 and Cancer Requires Enhanced Palliative Care Skills

Introducing palliative care from the moment of diagnosis is an essential component of comprehensive care, but it becomes even more critical when patients contract the COVID-19 coronavirus during treatment.

Multimethod Approach Supports Providers’ Mental Health During COVID-19

Providing variety of methods and approaches allows healthcare workers to choose the best options for them to mitigate and treat psychological distress from the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, researchers said in a preliminary report published in the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety.

Imaging Test Identifies Treatment Choices for ER-Positive Breast Cancer

Using positron-emission tomography with a radioactive tracer identifies levels of progesterone receptor in patients with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer, researchers reported in Nature Communications. The diagnostic tool would help clinicians determine which patients are most likely to respond to hormone therapies for breast cancer.

Cancer screening

Survey Results Support Predicted Effects of Pandemic Screening Drop

Clinicians are already seeing an increase in late-stage cancer diagnoses that they attribute to the pandemic-driven pause in cancer screening and treatment adherence, according to the results of a survey from the American Society for Radiation Oncology.

Text Messaging Reduces Disparities in Colorectal Cancer Screening

A series of text reminders to complete an at-home fecal immunochemical test increased screening completion rates by nearly 20%, researchers reported in study findings published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. The results are particularly encouraging because almost 90% of the participants were Black, a population that typically has low screening adherence rates but higher incidence of and mortality from colorectal cancer.

Targeted Therapy Drug Shows Promise in CLL

Pirtobrutinib, an investigational, third-generation Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor, offered response rates of 60% or higher in most groups of heavily pretreated patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), even those who’ve received other BTK inhibitors as previous treatment, researchers reported in Lancet.

Targeted therapy

Larotrectinib and Other Tumor-Agnostic Targeted Therapies Are Leading Cancer Care Into the Next Frontier

In 2018, the cancer drug larotrectinib quietly became a milestone along the evolving path to approaching cancer therapy: it was the first agent approved to treat a genetic variant, not a specific type of cancer or disease site. And as oncology treatment science progresses, many predict that it won’t be the last—it’s already been joined by pembrolizumab and entrectinib as tumor-agnostic therapies. The key to curing cancer may be hidden in the disease’s genetic code rather than its location in the body.

Genetics & genomics

Genomics Test Guides Treatment Decisions for Prostate Cancer

The Decipher genomics test, which measures activity of 22 genes among seven known cancer pathways, independently estimates patients’ risk of prostate cancer metastasis, death, and overall survival and helps identify patients most likely to benefit from hormone therapy, researchers reported in study findings published in JAMA Oncology.

Gut Microbiome May Be a Factor With Immunotherapy Resistance in Advanced Melanoma

Altering a patient's gut microbiome through fecal transplant improved response to immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy in 40% of patients with advanced melanoma who initially did not respond to the immunotherapy in a small, single-arm clinical trial. Researchers reported the findings in Science.

Naproxen Improves Immune Response to Cancer in People With Lynch Syndrome

The nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agent naproxen triggers immune cells in the intestinal lining to fight colorectal cancer in people with Lynch syndrome, researchers reported in Gut.

Latina, Asian Women With Gynecologic Cancers Are Less Likely to Use Palliative Care

Only 4%–9% of patients with ovarian or cervical cancer use palliative care, but the numbers are much lower for Hispanic and Asian women than for non-Hispanic White women, according to researchers’ findings reported in Data in Brief.

Nursing Management of Adverse Events From Enfortumab Vedotin Therapy for Urothelial Cancer

Once patients stop responding to platinum-based chemotherapy for locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer, their treatment options had been somewhat limited: PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors were effective in only 13%–29% of patients and taxanes in only 11%–13%. When the antibody drug conjugate enfortumab vedotin was approved in late 2019, it offered new hope for patients and providers, with clinical trials reporting a 44% objective response rate.

Adding MRI to PSA Detects More Prostate Cancers Than PSA Alone

Combining magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing allows clinicians to detect twice as many clinically significant prostate cancers than PSA testing alone, according to study results published in JAMA Oncology.

Muscle Quality Predicts Efficacy of NSCLC Immunotherapy

Patients with higher muscle quality during treatment with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor monotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) had higher overall response rates and longer progression-free survival than patients with lower-quality skeletal muscle, researchers reported in study findings published in Cancer Medicine.

Cancer risk factors

Diabetes May Increase Hematologic Cancer Risk and Mortality

Having diabetes increases a person’s risk for developing leukemia, lymphoma, or multiple myeloma—and their risk for dying from the cancer should it occur, researchers reported in Diabetologia.

Cancer recurrence

Fear of Recurrence May Actually Contribute to Cancer Recurrence

Stress, such as fear and worry about cancer coming back or many other life burdens and concerns, may activate dormant cancer cells remaining in the body to form tumors again, researchers reported in Science Translational Medicine.

Cancer screening

Lung Cancer Screening Guidelines to Reduce Disparities May Increase Them Instead—But Risk Model Can Help

The draft 2020 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) lung cancer screening recommendations were intended to increase the number of high-risk minorities eligible for lifesaving tests. And they do, but not as much as USPSTF anticipated, still leaving gaps and disparities, researchers reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. They created a risk model to augment the guidelines that eliminated the disparities for most racial groups.

Manage Adverse Events From PI3K Inhibitors for Breast Cancer

In 2019, PI3K inhibitors became a new treatment option for postmenopausal women and men with HR-positive, HER2-negative, PIK3CA-mutated, advanced or metastatic breast cancer with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of alpelisib in combination with fulvestrant. Although alpelisib remains the only PI3K inhibitor approved today, others are in clinical trials, and the new class of agents has a unique safety profile.

Cancer research

U.S. Sees Another Record-Breaking Decrease in Cancer Deaths, but Disparities Remain

Cancer-related mortality fell by 2.4% from 2017–2018, the largest-ever one-year drop in cancer deaths and a continuation of the downward trend the United States has seen since 1991, the American Cancer Society (ACS) reported in Cancer Facts and Figures, 2021.

Medicaid Expansion Coincides With Earlier Colon Cancer Diagnosis Rates

U.S. states that adopted the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion in January 2014 have earlier colon cancer diagnoses, enhanced access to care, and improved colon cancer surgical care than states that didn’t implement the expansion, researchers reported in Journal of the American College of Surgeons. Additionally, patients in the expansion states were more likely to have minimally invasive procedures and fewer urgent surgeries.

February 24, 2021

Mortality Rates After Cancer Surgery Decrease, but Racial Disparities Remain

During the past 10 years, mortality rates after cancer surgery have improved by 0.12%–0.14%, depending on race, researchers reported in study findings published in JAMA Network Open. However, the gap between outcomes for Black and White patients remains, they found.

February 17, 2021

Targeted Radiation Reduces Pain From Spine Metastasis

Palliative radiation targeted directly to the tumor with stereotactic body radiation therapy eliminated metastatic pain in 33% of patients for six months compared to 16% with standard radiation therapy. Researchers reported the study findings at the American Society for Radiation Oncology annual meeting.

February 10, 2021

Nurse self-care

Pandemics Have Serious Psychological Implications for Nurses

Watching patients—or even colleagues—suffer or die, not being able to protect yourself with the right personal protective equipment, worry about exposing loved ones, and the challenge of balancing it all contribute to an immeasurable psychological burden for nurses and other healthcare professionals during a pandemic. Studies show that the effects are serious, leading to post-traumatic stress, anxiety, depression, and, in some cases, suicide among providers.

February 09, 2021

Even Short Treatment Delays Affect Cancer Outcomes

Delaying initiation of cancer treatment by just four weeks is associated with increased mortality rates for patients with seven types of cancers, regardless of treatment type, researchers reported in BMJ.

February 03, 2021

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To report a content error, inaccuracy, or typo, email pubONSVoice@ons.org.

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Elisa Becze BA, ELS, Editor

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