Current Issue
VOL 3 NO 1 • JAN/FEB 2012
The dreaded phone call. It is a Friday afternoon, and I am sitting at my desk at the University of Arizona Cancer Center trying to decide the best way to deliver some very bad news to a lovely patient with resected pancreatic cancer. Mrs. X is a 60-year-old woman who took excellent physical care ...
Review ArticleEva Lu Lee, MSN, RN, ANP-BC, and Laurel Westcarth, MSN, RN, ANP-BC Cancer therapy uses a combination of treatment modalities such as surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy that may improve patient prognosis (Van Meir, Bellail, & Phyphanich, 2004; Butowski & Chang, 2005). However, combination therapy and extended survival are often associated with potential...
Review ArticleSusan Hawbaker, MSN, APN, ANP-BC, OCN®Patients with cancer have a two- to sixfold increase in the risk of developing venous thromboembolism (VTEs; Samama, Dahl, Quinlan, Mismetti, & Rosencher, 2003), and the incidence continues to increase with cancer-associated VTE representing nearly 20% of all cases (Heit et al., 2002). These ...
Review ArticleRuth McCorkle, PhD, FAAN, Constance Engelking, RN, MS, M. Tish Knobf, PhD, FAAN, AOCN®, Mark Lazenby, PhD, APRN, Marianne Davies, APRN, Rebecca Sipples, APRN, Ellyn Ercolano, Ms, and Catherine Lyons, RN, MS, NEA-BCRecent major advances in diagnosis, treatment, and care delivery demonstrate the ever-evolving health-care system in the United States. This constant evolution places greater demands on staff members, altering their roles and requiring them to attain new competencies. This is especially true in c...
Practice MattersAlicia C. Ross, MPAS, PA-COne in two men and women will be diagnosed with cancer of all types during their lifetimes, based on lifetime risk rates from 2005 through 2007; 1 in 6 men with prostate cancer, 1 in 8 women with breast cancer, 1 in 14 men and women with lung and bronchus cancer, and 1 in 20 men and women with co...
Practice MattersHollie Devine, MSN, RN, ANP-BC, AOCNP®As a veteran oncology nurse practitioner, the findings presented by Towle et al. (2011) in their article, “Results of the ASCO Study of Collaborative Practice Arrangements,” recently published in the Journal of Oncology Practice, were not astonishing to me. The purpose of their study was to addre...
Prescriber's CornerSusan Slater, MN, FNP-BCSince the early 1980s, high-dose chemotherapy followed by autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) has emerged as standard therapy for patients with hematologic malignancies, including non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and multiple myeloma (MM). In 2009, 32,000 autologous transplants we...
Tools and TechnologyLydia T. Madsen, MSN, RN, AOCNS®, and Sandra Cesario, PhD, RNC, FAANOncology patients frequently request information about diet, exercise, and a healthy living approach during and after cancer treatment. Although a consultation with a registered dietitian is often the recommendation for patients in large multidisciplinary centers, a same-day consult may not alway...
Diagnostic SnapshotRobin Sommers, DNP, ANP-BC, AOCNP®Ms. G.M. is a 79-year-old woman who was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in June 2008, at which time she underwent neoadjuvant chemoradiation. This was followed by a three-hole esophagectomy with a thorascopic right chest dissection in May 2009, with complete pathologic response. Unfortunately, i...
