In the December issue of The Oncology Nurse-APN/PA (TON), we feature a variety of articles aimed at informing and empowering nurses, navigators, and advanced practice providers who work to improve the lives of patients with cancer.
We begin this issue with an interview with Jennifer Mulholland, BSN, RN, OCN, Oncology Nurse Navigator, St. Elizabeth Cancer Center, Edgewood, KY, who discusses what inspired her to become a nurse, her responsibilities at the center, some of the rewards and challenges of her job, and the award-winning research she conducted that helped to reduce the time to treatment initiation for patients with cancer at her institution (see here).
This issue of TON also includes coverage from several recent oncology meetings, where experts discussed the latest safety and efficacy data from clinical trials evaluating new cancer screening tools and safer, more effective therapies that are leading to better survival rates and overall patient outcomes.
For example, at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress 2022, Deb Schrag, MD, MPH, George J. Bosl Chair, Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Professor, Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York City, discussed findings from the PATHFINDER trial, which showed that a multicancer early detection blood test may be able to accurately identify the presence of cancer in apparently healthy people, which may be a game-changer for diagnosing and treating patients in the future (see here).
“What is exciting about this new paradigm is that many of these were cancers for which we don’t have standard screening,” Dr Schrag said during her presentation.
At the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting 2022, Jamie Takayesu, MD, Radiation Oncology Resident, University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center, Ann Arbor, presented eye-opening results from a new study revealing that radiation oncologists discuss sexual side effects associated with brachytherapy far less frequently with women than with men (see here).
“We found a big disparity in the way we approach sexual dysfunction with our patients, where female patients are asked about sexual issues much less often than male patients. Equally important is that we see this trend on a national level in clinical trials,” Dr Takayesu said during her presentation.
Iris C. Gibbs, MD, FAAWR, FACR, FASTRO, Professor, Radiation Oncology, Stanford Cancer Center, CA, and Chair, ASTRO Council on Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, referred to this abstract as “pioneering and innovative,” noting that it “turns the lens on us to be more inclusive and recognize the sexual morbidity associated with our treatments for all genders.”
Additional topics in this issue of TON include helpful strategies for combating healthcare burnout in the workplace (see here), emerging data on the link between air pollution and lung cancer in never-smokers (see here), a new report highlighting the value of using generic and biosimilar drugs for patients with cancer and other diseases (see here), and recent findings from trials evaluating novel treatment regimens for women with advanced ovarian cancer (see here) and children and adolescents with high-risk lymphoma (see here).
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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