In the August issue of The Oncology Nurse-APN/PA (TON), we feature a wide variety of articles aimed at helping our readers stay informed on important issues relevant to nurses, navigators, and advanced practice providers as they care for patients with cancer.
This issue begins with an interview with Kristina Rua, MSN, RN, OCN, ONN-CG, who shares her experiences as Director of Oncology Navigation for the East Florida Division of Sarah Cannon (see here).
“I am pleased that oncology navigation is at the forefront of caring for patients. People are seeing the value of nurse navigation and are implementing it into their systems,” she said.
As with every issue, you will also find highlights from recent oncology meetings, where experts discussed results from clinical trials evaluating new treatment approaches for patients with cancer.
At the American Society of Breast Surgeons 22nd Annual Meeting, Richard E. Fine, MD, FACS, presented interim results from the ICE3 trial, which is investigating the feasibility of cryoablation as an alternative to surgery for women with low-risk, early-stage breast cancer (see see here).
“Cryoablation potentially represents a dramatic improvement in care for appropriate low-risk patients, and at 3 years posttreatment, the ICE3 trial results are extremely positive,” he said.
In a presentation at the 2021 Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association Annual Conference, Dennis Marjoncu, PharmD, BCOP, and Kori Holman, PharmD, BCOP, discussed the potential advantages and disadvantages of daratumumab, a novel CD38-directed monoclonal antibody, in the treatment of newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (see here).
In a separate presentation at the conference, a panel of pharmacists discussed best practices for optimizing opioid analgesics in oncology patients, who often experience significant pain related to their disease. The experts recommended using a stewardship approach to opioid therapy, which can be helpful for weighing risks and benefits (see here).
“We should be mindful of the opioid epidemic, but we don’t want to lose sight of improved clinical outcomes. We must be careful not to jeopardize pain control just because we need to target certain guideline recommendations,” said Tanya J. Uritsky, PharmD, during this presentation.
Additional topics in this issue include safety and efficacy data on novel agents being used to treat uveal melanoma (see here), urothelial cancer (see here), lung cancer (see here), and cholangiocarcinoma (see here).
We also feature an overview of select articles published in leading medical journals, detailing recent research on topics of interest to professionals involved in the care of patients with cancer.
As always, we hope that you will enjoy this issue of TON, and we invite you to visit www.TheOncologyNurse.com to share your feedback with us. You can also send an e-mail with any questions or comments you may have to info@TheOncologyNurse.com.
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