About 120,000 women in the United States younger than 50 years develop cancer each year. Women on chemotherapy could suffer from side effects such as acute ovarian failure, infertility, and early menopause according to researchers from the University of California San Francisco. A total of 1041 women (aged 18 to 40 years) who were treated for leukemia, Hodgkin disease, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, breast cancer, and gastrointestinal cancers responded to a retrospective survey. Read More ›
In the last decade, the question regarding whether all cells within a tumor are equal or whether some cancer cells are more powerful has been highly investigated in experimental models. Research published recently in Nature Medicine, however, centers on patients and shows that acute myeloid leukemia (AML) contains rare cells with stem cell properties, called leukemia stem cells (LSC). These LSCs better predict clinical outcome than the majority of AML cells, thus establishing for the first time that LSCs are significant in patients.
BOSTON—As more targeted therapies for non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) become available, experts are assessing which patients’ tumors should be genotyped and when. Although genotyping—not to be confused with genetic testing—is becoming increasingly important in developing a treatment plan, professional guidelines do not yet recommend incorporating it as a routine part of care for patients with NSCLC.
Of the nurses who work in outpatient chemotherapy infusion centers, nearly 17% reported having been exposed on their skin or eyes to the toxic drugs they administer, according to a new study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Approximately 84% of chemotherapy is administered in outpatient settings, often by nurses. This study included 1339 oncology nurses who were not employed by inpatient hospital units. Results appear online in the journal BMJ Quality and Safety.
On September 19-20, 2011, world leaders will convene at the United Nations in New York for the second ever high-level meeting on a specific health issue to chart a global response to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). These challenging diseases – cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, and diabetes – with common risk factors that include smoking, alcohol abuse, physical inactivity, and unhealthy diet, now cause 63% of all deaths globally, 90% of which occur in developing countries.
In the U.S., nurse practitioners (NPs) or physician assistants (PAs) are caring for patients alongside nearly half of all physicians, according to a new government report.
NPs, PAs, and certified nurse midwives (CNMs) worked together with 49.1% of U.S. physicians in 2009. Larger practices and those practices generating a significant amount of revenue from Medicaid patients were often where these practitioners were employed, according to researchers at the National Center for Health Statistics.
For breast cancer patients aged 66 years and older, nurses should consider comorbidities when discussing prognosis, according to an analysis of Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results–Medicare data.
The healthcare system is only beginning to recognize what nurses who tend patients with cancer have always known: The loved ones of dying patients also need help managing pain. Julie Cronin, BSN, RN, OCN, an oncology nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston, says failing to address family members’ distress has serious consequences. “If the spiritual, emotional, physical, and mental needs of these loved ones are neglected, the rates of morbidity and mortality, depression, and risk for ineffective coping can skyrocket.”
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