ONCOLOGY Nurse Edition Vol 22 No 8

The authors of this article accomplished their goal to provide an overview of physical long-term / late effects. Similar to most available literature published since the Institute of Medicine report in November 2005, it provided a descriptive summary of the epidemiologic data. While vital to increasing the knowledge base of nurses on the frontlines, it provides little guidance as to how to change or improve practice.

Two years after her first mammogram the patient, EC, noticed swelling and skin changes in one breast. A bone scan, chest and abdomen CT, and PET scan were negative for metastatic spread, staging the cancer at IIIB.

In cancer treatment these days, the immediate-what needs to be done for the patient right now toward achieving long-term survival-is coupled with planning post-treatment surveillance, care, and support for patients who will likely survive their disease.

When you have cancer, you can get diarrhea for a number of reasons. Most often, it is a side effect of treatments, such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy.

Adult survivors of childhood craniopharyngiomas, the second most common type of childhood brain tumor, face many challenges, including multiple life-threatening metabolic abnormalities. Serious metabolic deficits can result from injury to the pituitary gland or hypothalamus.

Drug is indicated for rescue of normal cells following high dose methotrexate administration for osteosarcoma. It is also indicated to diminish and counteract methotrexate toxicity if the drug is not effectively eliminated, or for inadvertent overdose of folic acid antagonists.

Today there are nearly 12 million individuals living in the United States who have ever received a diagnosis of cancer.[1] This number is growing, having just been recently updated to approximately 11.9 million from a previous estimate of about 10.8 million cancer survivors.[2] One half of all men and one in three women will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, with the largest burden being during later life; one in seven Americans 65 years of age and older has a past or present cancer diagnosis.[3]

Cancer occurs in approximately 1 per 1,000 pregnancies. For the woman and her family, the diagnosis creates an emotional upheaval of hopes and fears and raises the issue of immortality and mortality simultaneously. The treatment proposed to save the mother can appear in direct conflict with the desire to protect the developing fetus.

A diagnosis of cancer and its subsequent treatment can be a very frightening and confusing experience for the pregnant patient, and are challenging for the physician and nurse. As women delay childbirth until later in life, the incidence of pregnancy associated with cancer is expected to increase. Currently, approximately 1 in 1,000 pregnancies is complicated by cancer.[1–5]

What is the impact of being diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS)? What are the physical/psychosocial ramifi cations of RBC transfusions to manage the extreme fatigue and weakness that accompany refractory anemia; of parenteral or oral iron chelation therapy for