Nearly half of patients treated for early-stage breast cancer report at least one severe side effect, according to the results of a study published in Cancer.

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.

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.

Researchers have found that patients receiving sorafenib for differential thyroid cancer are more likely to experience adverse events from the drug, compared to patients with renal or hepatocellular cancers. The findings were published in JAMA Oncology.

Patients with prostate cancer who undergo radiation treatment, especially brachytherapy, may be at increased risk of bladder cancer more than 10 years later, according to the results of a new study presented at the American Urological Association annual meeting.

Immunotherapy agents, such as checkpoint inhibitors, are gaining popularity and press in cancer care. The agents block pathways used to slow immune activity, taking the brakes off the immune system so killer T cells stay in action and increase cancer cell death. Side effects often mimic autoimmune activity as the immune system stays in overdrive.

Grace is a 42-year-old woman diagnosed with ER/PR-positive breast cancer who has been scheduled for four cycles of docetaxel plus cyclophosphamide chemotherapy. She's worried about losing her beautiful brunette hair.

Alopecia, rash, peripheral neuropathy: it’s a well-known fact that systemic cancer therapies often damage healthy tissues while fighting cancer cells. However, ocular toxicity from newer molecularly targeted cancer agents such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) is generally underestimated and under-reported.

Few therapies are effective for treating advanced soft tissue sarcoma, so pazopanib quickly became a commonly prescribed therapy once it was approved for STS in April 2012. Although pazopanib is safe and effective, patients must be educated about its administration and side effects.

Although about 50% of patients can be cured after surgical resection when colorectal cancer (CRC) is detected early, the remaining patients aren’t as fortunate. CRC that metastasizes before detection or recurs following surgery remains a major treatment challenge.

Unintended weight loss and anorexia in patients with cancer is associated with decreased performance status, reduced response and tolerance to treatment, decreased survival, and reduced quality of life.

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.

Jackie is administering six units of pooled random donor platelets to Stuart, a patient with myelodysplastic syndrome. The transfusion was started at 120 ml per hour, per hospital policy. When Jackie rechecked Stuart’s vital signs at 15 minutes, she noted that his temperature had increased from 37.1°C to 38.1°C. In addition, Stuart was chilling. What would you do?

Gina is filling in for the triage nurse at her facility’s outpatient solid tumor department. She receives a call from a patient who reports severe swelling in her left arm after returning from a trip on the opposite side of the United States. She says the skin in her arm and hand is quite tight, and that her hand was throbbing when she woke up this morning. What would you do?

William calls your office complaining of painful redness and blisters on his chest. He admits that during the recent warm weather, he hadn’t been wearing a shirt while working in the yard. He initially thought it was a sunburn, but the symptoms continued to worsen and were unrelieved by typical sunburn remedies. Upon reviewing William’s chart, you see that he recently received radiation and chemotherapy therapy for Hodgkin disease. What would you do?

Bob, a 61-year-old man with multiple myeloma, calls his hematologist’s office complaining of worsening constipation despite increasing his fiber and liquid intake. Yesterday, he stopped taking his ondansetron because he remembered that it can cause constipation, but now he’s nauseated in addition to being constipated. What would you do?