Articles

A master’s level oncology specialization program prepares nurses with the clinical, cultural sensitivity, and research skills they will need to deal with issues impacting underrepresented minorities. Read More ›

Cancer is a disease for the entire family to survive, whether in terms of emotional hurt or the provision of concrete physical care. And alongside partners, spouses, and friends, many survivors care for young children. Kathryn E. Weaver, PhD, of Wake Forest University School of Medicine and her fellow researchers estimate that 1.58 million US cancer survivors live with minor children, totaling 2.85 million young people in all (Cancer. 2010; 116:4395-4401). Read More ›

ORLANDO—Computed tomography (CT) scanning and blood tests to determine tumor markers are very important in the follow-up of stage I nonseminomatous testicular cancer (NSTC), but the physical examination is of limited value, according to new research presented in a poster session.

ORLANDO—Most nurses who care for patients with cancer are at risk for compassion fatigue and burnout and may leave the profession as a result, according to a new survey.

ORLANDO—Nurse practitioners are in an ideal position to assess whether nonurgent emergency department patients are undergoing recommended mammography for breast cancer screening, a new study has found.

“Even though they know that breast cancer is a serious disease, many women are still not being screened with mammography,” said Karen Paraska, CRNP, PhD, assistant professor of nursing at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during her poster presentation.

ORLANDO—A pilot program that instituted some small changes, including use of chlorhexadine scrubs the evening before surgery and then again 12 hours later on the morning of surgery, was able to reduce surgical site infections in one Ohio cancer center by almost 20% after 12 months.

ORLANDO—Patients often do not understand the terms clinicians use to describe their hematologic malignancies, such as myelodysplastic syndrome, which may lead to misunderstandings about their disease.

SAN DIEGO—Prostate cancer patients who are treated with a combination of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) and radiotherapy may have a substantially improved chance of survival compared with patients who do not receive radiotherapy, according to British researchers. They reported at the 52nd annual meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology that combination therapy resulted in substantial benefits in overall survival and disease-specific survival in men with locally advanced prostate cancer.

I discovered my tumor by accident, shortly after taking custody of my two granddaughters. I was playing on the floor with them when one straddled my stomach and plopped down. The pain was unbelievable; I knew there was something very wrong. The many tests that followed were inconclusive, and my doctors thought it was a growth in my uterus so I was scheduled for a hysterectomy.

Cancer-related pain does not stop after the initial treatment period for almost 20% of survivors. In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers also found racial, in this study blacks, and sex, in this study women, disparities in cancer-related chronic pain.