New medicines and therapeutic combinations are tested and marketed every year. Healthcare decision makers have to make explicit choices about adopting new treatments and deal with the resource consequences of their choices. The aim of this article is to examine the nursing workload of administering alternative chemotherapy protocols as a driver of costs. Data collection (focus groups with chemo...

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES to test the effect of a supportive, one-time psychoeducational intervention on treatment adherence among African American women receiving first adjuvant therapy for breast cancer. DESIGN a pilot, randomized, controlled clinical trial, two-group design, with one-time intervention and four data collection points. SETTING two University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute clinics...

Traditionally, a variety of factors were used to make adjuvant treatment decisions in breast cancer, but none of those factors, except grade, has a consistent association with sensitivity to chemotherapy or endocrine therapy. However, oncologists now are able to use molecular assays as a component of decision making for adjuvant therapy. This article focuses on the use of two of those molecular...

Patients with head and neck cancer often present with locally advanced disease at the time of diagnosis. Treatment plans include aggressive radiation therapy, often with concurrent chemotherapy. This treatment causes significant toxicity resulting from normal tissue damage. Currently, no consensus or evidence-based practice guidelines exist regarding which type of oral care products are best to...

Although the known risks of exposure to hazardous drugs have been well documented and disseminated, certain barriers remain in the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) by nurses administering chemotherapy. At Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a program was developed that incorporated not only monitoring and reporting compliance of the use of PPE, but also engaged the staff in audit and report...

Appendiceal cancer is rare and has been treated traditionally with repeated surgical debulking; however, cytoreductive surgery (CRS) with heated intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) is becoming the preferred treatment modality because of improved survival. Nurses are responsible for knowing how to care for patients who are receiving or have received this treatment and need to be prepared to pro...

We report a case of a 7-year-old child who received a peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) for chemotherapy. He suffered from an unusual PICC fracture in vivo with pulmonary embolism after eight circles of chemotherapeutic agents administered. In this case report, we review the literatures for the underlying pathophysiology of this uncommon phenomenon. IV nurses should consider the pos...

Falls are a major concern for patients with acute myeloid leukemia who are admitted to the hospital for induction chemotherapy. Patients with cancer are at risk for rapidly changing health status and, therefore, need a different kind of fall surveillance than those in other inpatient units. Fall risk most likely will change throughout an inpatient's stay. Oncology nurses can start addressing th...

In 1985, a survey found that only about one-third of physicians and oncology nurses would have consented to chemotherapy for non-small-cell lung cancer. In response to statements made at a recent American Society of Oncology (ASCO) Board of Directors meeting questioning whether these data are still valid, Dr. Smith and colleagues conducted a new survey of oncologists attending a 1997 National C...