The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic was a wake-up call for preparedness: it caught society unaware and highlighted gaps in virtually every modern-day system. With those lessons learned, when the United States started removing pandemic-related public health restrictions and we began a return to “normal,” experts from all corners of society started looking to what the future will bring.
On July 26, 2021, the American Nurses Association (ANA) signed onto a statement released by a large group of healthcare systems and other associations in support of healthcare employers mandating nurses and all healthcare personnel be vaccinated against the COVID-19 coronavirus. This is in response to increasing circulation of COVID-19 variants and lagging vaccination rates.
Oncology nurses have a responsibility to continually enhance their career and practice—for their patients, for their profession, and even for themselves. Two strategies for doing that are certification and mentorship. Combining the two is an even more powerful approach.
On July 28, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported that a clinical trial (OCEAN, Study OP-103) evaluating melphalan flufenamide (Pepaxto®) with dexamethasone to treat patients with multiple myeloma showed an increased risk of death.
Sleep and rest are two different concepts. Society focuses on sleep, but rest is just as important, and not just for the physical body. Rest allows us to nurture our physical, mental, emotional, sensory, creative, social, and spiritual self. Each of those dimensions needs to be consciously rested for a person to truly feel restored.
Scientists created a new cancer immunotherapy approach that uses a new type of CAR T cells to stimulate an immune response against cells that are missing one gene copy. They reported their findings in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
On July 26, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved pembrolizumab (Keytruda®) for high-risk, early-stage, triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) in combination with chemotherapy as neoadjuvant treatment and continued as a single agent as adjuvant treatment after surgery.
Pertuzumab, trastuzumab, and hyaluronidase-zzxf subcutaneous injection (PhesgoTM) was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in June 2020 for patients with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer. The drug components are the same as those in FDA-approved IV version, and study results showed comparable safety and efficacy to the IV counterparts. The new administration route allows eligible patients to bypass infusion centers or even receive the therapy at home.
Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) is a commonly seen term for readers of science news and literature across a variety of industries. But reading the word often doesn’t automatically translate to understanding it and its implications. Here’s what oncology nurses need to know about CRISPR.
As of July 2021, more than 159 million individuals in the United States have been fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 coronavirus, totaling about 48.1% of the U.S. population. However, approximately 173 million others have not, or suggested they will not, receive the vaccination. President Biden’s goal of having 70% of Americans receive at least one vaccine dose and 160 million adults to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by July 4, 2021, fell short.