Welcome to this issue of The Oncology Nurse-APN/PA (TON). It’s gearing up to be a busy time of year for TON as we offer coverage of the recent Genitourinary Cancers Symposium and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) 20th Annual Conference. The next issue will have a focus on coverage of the Oncology Nursing Society 40th Annual Congress. Needless to say, we’re all taking deep breaths here at TON.
The coverage from NCCN includes an article about how to best manage dermatologic toxicities that patients with cancer may develop as a result of their treatment. Mario E. Lacouture, MD, presents some management strategies for skin rashes and related symptoms, nail changes, and alopecia and facial hirsutism—all possible adverse events that patients may experience. As Lacouture notes, improvements in survival “have given patients more opportunity to worry about their appearance and quality of life.” That is the silver lining.
Another topic addresses the new NCCN clinical practice guideline for smoking cessation in oncology patients—it encourages the use of evidence-based pharmacotherapy, behavioral therapy, and close follow-up of any necessary re-treatment. The not-so-good news is that “virtually no institutions reported systemic and consistent mechanisms for fostering cessation.”
We address this issue in our new reader poll (see below). Visit www.TheOncologyNurse.com to let us know if you talk to your patients who smoke about how to best quit. Tell us if your institution has policies in place to help these patients.
In her Genetic Counseling column, Cristi Radford, MS, CGC, gives us an update about the latest research in inherited ovarian cancer—a very hot topic in the news. Even though ovarian cancer accounts for 1.3% of all new cancers in the United States, it has a very high death rate as only about 1 in 7 women with the disease are diagnosed at the local stage.
As always, we at TON want to hear about your ideas and opinions. Please be sure to visit our website, www.TheOncologyNurse.com, and tell us what topics you want to see covered in TON. We love to hear from you and we appreciate your feedback.
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