Oncology nurses, employers, and researchers are transforming cancer care every day. During the 49th Annual ONS Congress® in Washington, DC, ONS recognized 14 of those individuals and organizations for their outstanding contributions to oncology nursing with its 2024 ONS awards.
I had a small crisis at my home a few days before Christmas. In the midst of cookie baking and after 17 years of faithful service, my oven stopped working. I finished baking the cookies at my daughter’s home, but the big celebration was at my house. Although it was the least of my concerns among all the holiday dishes I now had to figure out how to cook, what my family was most worried about was how I would make the bread.
Amid the rising nursing shortages, new graduate RNs (NGRNs) and new-to-oncology nurses need on-the-job training as they enter inpatient and outpatient roles. Nurse residency programs are one strategy to address the competency gap. In a clinical session on April 27, 2024, during the 49th Annual ONS Congress®, ONS members Julianne Luttrell, MS, RN, CNL, NPD-BC, and Leah Scaramuzzo, MSN, RN, MEDSURG-BC, AOCN®, described how nurse residency programs have been successfully implemented in urban and rural healthcare settings.
Eflornithine (Iwilfin™) is the first U.S. Food and Drug Administration–approved oral maintenance therapy for high-risk neuroblastoma. Approved in December 2023, eflornithine has an orphan drug designation.
By providing a centralized team of support staff—including research nurses, clinical research associates, and clinical data specialists—the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI’s) Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis said it hopes to remove the research staffing challenges many of its sites have experienced since the COVID-19 pandemic. The agency announced the launch of its pilot Virtual Clinical Trials Office program in February 2024.
Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-ID) today released a draft legislative proposal to address persistent economic problems leading to shortages of generic medicines plaguing America’s healthcare system, including chemotherapy drugs and ADHD medications.
On May 16, 2024, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to tarlatamab-dlle (Imdelltra™) for extensive-stage small cell lung cancer with disease progression on or after platinum-based chemotherapy.
On May 15, 2024, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to lisocabtagene maraleucel (Breyanzi®) for adults with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma (FL) who have received two or more prior lines of systemic therapy.
Cryotherapy, the therapeutic use of extreme cold, was first studied for cancer care in 1919, when Temple Sedgwick Fay, MD, discovered that higher-temperature body areas were more prone to metastasis and demonstrated that hypothermia reduced swelling and inflammation—two oncogenic drivers. Today, we understand that cellular proliferation slows under the influence of cryotherapy, which can be used internally (e.g., cryoablative surgery) or externally (e.g., ice bags, specially designed devices).
As chemotherapy administration shifts from the inpatient to outpatient setting, inpatient nurses may have fewer opportunities to develop and retain high levels of chemotherapy competency in their practice. During a poster session on April 25, 2024, at the 49th Annual ONS Congress®, ONS members Heather Askren, DNP, NP-C, RN, OCN®, and Brittney Henady, BSN, RN, OCN®, described how their institution standardized care and helped maintain nurse competency throughout the hospital by assigning inpatient RNs to quarterly shifts at the outpatient cancer center.