A nurse navigator–led program aimed at improving awareness, access, and uptake of low-dose CT screening for individuals at high risk of lung cancer resulted in improved screening rates with the potential to improve patient outcomes by catching the disease at its earliest stages.
Oncology nurse navigators are known for identifying gaps in cancer care, being proactive in setting goals to address them, and designing specific interventions that lead not only to better-and measurable-outcomes but also to increased patient satisfaction.
Do social media platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook represent an opportunity for oncology nurses to network and keep up with the latest in evidence-based practice, or are they a time-sucking nuisance, and even worse, a possible professional landmine?
Using a color-coded, pocket-sized early warning scorecard has the potential to help nurses and other clinicians assess when cancer patients are deteriorating, and it's an intervention that could help avoid acute hospitalizations and even save lives, according to two clinical nurse specialists from Johns Hopkins who shared their experience with piloting an early warning tool.
Newly reported findings from a randomized phase III vaccine efficacy trial demonstrate that HPV vaccination may offer protection against HPV-related cancers across multiple tumor sites in women aged 18-25 who had been previously exposed to the human papillomavirus, with the vaccine effective in more than half of these women.
Although the treatment landscape for advanced pancreatic cancer has expanded in recent years, this diagnosis remains one of the most devastating for patients and their loved ones.
In 2009, Connecticut became the first state to enact legislation mandating that patients undergoing mammography be informed of their breast density and the option to have a follow-up ultrasound.
Big changes are ahead for oncology nurses and other healthcare professionals who prepare and administer hazardous drugs, as new regulations for safe handling are being finalized by the US Pharmacopeial Convention (USP).
The FDA has issued a safety advisory warning healthcare professionals not to use Treanda (bendamustine HCl) Injection with closed system transfer devices (CSTDs), adapters, and syringes containing polycarbonate or acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS).
With a career as remarkable and distinguished as Joan Lunden's, it's really no surprise that she took on her latest challenge-a diagnosis of triple-negative breast cancer-with such determination and grace.
Moving early to diagnose and treat lymphedema after breast cancer treatment can reverse this side effect or prevent it from becoming more severe.
The year 2014 was distinguished by dramatic progress in cancer care, perhaps nowhere more so than in the treatment of blood cancers.
The risk of dying from prostate cancer increased fourfold when active surveillance was used to monitor men with intermediate-risk disease compared with low-risk prostate cancer patients, according to results of a new study, the first to examine long-term outcomes of patients with low- versus intermediate-risk prostate cancer who have been managed with this conservative approach to care.
A study involving more than 1000 patients enrolled in randomized clinical trials has found that patient and physician assessment of treatment toxicities can vary greatly, and they are frequently under-reported by physicians.
The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced a new initiative which it hopes will improve the coordination and quality of cancer care for Medicare patients with cancer while also reducing costs.
When survivors of colorectal cancer smoke, their risk of death more than doubles compared with their counterparts who do not smoke, a new study by researchers at the American Cancer Society has found.
With the number of cancer survivors expected to reach 19 million by 2024, how these individuals fare long-term is an issue of ongoing interest and concern. An analysis of findings from a large survey of survivors conducted by the American Cancer Society (ACS) has found that many survivors continue to face physical, mental, and financial difficulties long after their treatment ends.
For older men with prostate cancer, adding radiation to hormone therapy is both tolerable and effective in reducing the number of deaths.
Patients with newly diagnosed metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) who had higher levels of vitamin D in their blood lived a median of 8 months longer and experienced greater disease-free survival after their cancer treatment
Results of a large retrospective study of more than 20,000 women treated for early-stage breast cancer are shedding light on how much treatment may be too much for these early-stage cancers.
In a role that's already multifaceted and growing ever more so, many oncology nurses and navigators are facing a new layer of complexity in their everyday practice.
Findings from a long-term analysis of the Women's Intervention Nutrition Study (WINS) show that the deaths of women with hormone receptor–negative breast cancers were reduced by up to 54% when they followed a program to reduce their dietary fat intake, which could provide benefit for patients with triple-negative breast cancer.
Five years of tamoxifen continues to offer protection against breast cancer, reducing the risk of breast cancer by 29% in otherwise healthy women at high risk of the disease who have been followed now for 16 to 22 years.
For individuals living in rural areas, getting a genetic test can impose its own set of barriers, like multiple long trips for counseling, testing, and follow-up. However, findings of a new study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute have shown that telephone counseling was just as effective as in-person counseling in many respects.
Survival for patients with head and neck cancer squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) was better if they used a proton-pump inhibitor and/or a histamine receptor-2 antagonist to control acid reflux.
Despite research findings that toxicities outweigh benefits when women over the age of 70 are treated with radiation for their early-stage breast cancer, the treatment remains commonplace 10 years later, a new study has found.
A group of researchers looking to better equip patients to be self-managers of their cancer have developed a new tool to help patients communicate their treatment goals more effectively.
Despite the proven benefits of SBRT for patients with inoperable stage I NSCLC, whether such patients are offered it depends on their race, insurance status, and the type of facility where they are being treated.
Findings from two studies are shining a light on demographic and socioeconomic factors impacting who will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer (CRC), who is more likely to die from it, and what preventive measures might make a difference.
After more than four decades in nursing, one might suppose that infusion nurse Lillian Walsh would be at a point in her career when the job would have lost some of its luster. That assumption, however, would be totally wrong.
