Sally is a 62-year-old woman who had a mastectomy for stage IIB left-sided breast cancer. She had preoperative chemotherapy followed by the mastectomy, at which time she also had a prophylactic simple mastectomy of her right breast. She completed postsurgical radiation therapy six months ago and is in for a routine follow-up appointment.
As chemotherapy administration has shifted from IV delivery in the infusion center to oral delivery at home, so has the burden for the five rights of medication administration.
For patients with cancer, it’s hard to believe any health condition could be scarier or deadlier than the tumor cells in their bodies. But infection—whether from compromised immune systems or cancer treatment itself—is a life-threatening safety issue many patients may face.
Oral agents are changing oncology treatment, and along with it, who’s responsible for the safety of those treatments. “With oral agents, the onus is now primarily on patients and their caregivers,” says ONS member Kathy Leifeste. This is quite a shift from the nurse-administered IV chemotherapy and biotherapy we’ve grown accustomed to.
Businessman W. Clement Stone opined, “Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.”
A new list of evidence-based recommendations from the American Society of Hematology helps patients and providers understand which hematology-related tests and treatments pose significant harm and cost if overused and therefore should be avoided.
Lung cancer symptoms and side effects often persist in patients as they transition to the survivorship period, resulting in increased stress, poorer functional status, lower quality of life, and higher mortality. However, emerging evidence suggests that yoga can help patients with cancer and other chronic illnesses manage symptoms.
As a child, I was fascinated by Gregor Mendel’s experiments with peas. In those days, dominate or recessive genes were touted as being responsible for eye color and other genetic characteristics passed from parent to offspring. Today we know so much more.
A new study reported in Science suggests that some chemotherapy works more effectively with the help of intestinal bacteria.
Recently, I was caring for a patient diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer. He was a young man with tattoos and a muscular frame whose strong body was just beginning to fail him. In the course of making my hourly rounds I asked if there was anything he needed that I could provide for him. "I wish you could just tell me I won't die."
