June 2013

While competition is the hallmark of the powerhouse sports teams of the Big Ten Conference, collaboration will be the key for a research initiative recently launched by cancer centers at most of the same universities.

A grant from a pharmaceutical company is translating into a win for both the University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro and its patients with cancer.

If the job of oncology nurse comes with satisfactions it also comes with an abundance of stress, even more than what oncologists and other medical professionals experience, according to research.

With more and more cancer therapies being administered as oral agents, oncology nurses have a critical role to play in helping their patients to manage their medications and any side effects of treatment.

Improving communication, building relationships, coordinating activities among units, and engaging staff members are not only ways to create a more positive working environment, they are critical for maintaining patient safety.

A growing proportion of cancer patients and cancer survivors are adopting CAM diets and taking herbs, vitamins, and supplements for their healing properties-not in place of standard cancer therapy, but along with it and beyond treatment.

Cancer centers are beginning to establish oncology nurse navigator programs with integrated processes for assessment, identification, referral, education, care, and support for patients whose gynecologic cancers may be genetically-based.

Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy is a common side effect in patients with cancer and nurses are essential to helping patients to manage this condition.

It is no surprise that increasing rates of obesity are linked to increasing cancer incidence, but what is interesting is just how bad things are now, and how bad they are predicted to become in the years ahead.

Creating more opportunities for patients to report their symptoms and treatment experiences is essential to providing patient-centered care.