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As cancer care evolves, so do new opportunities for nursing roles. Oncology nurses in any role provide essential cancer care, including addressing disparities and social determinants of health and reducing financial toxicity. However, what sets nontraditional nursing roles apart are the populations they care for, how they provide that care, and how they’re overcoming systemic disparities to ensure that all patients with cancer have equal access to high-quality oncology care.

“It’s important for all nurses to advocate—for themselves, for their practice, for their profession, for their patients. Without the nursing community advocating for itself, no other entity will. It is the nurses’ responsibility to be their own advocate,” Alec Stone, MA, MPA, ONS Director of Government Affairs and Advocacy, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BC, AOCNS^®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a conversation about how you can advocate for oncology nursing with ONS.

“When we are able to connect with the things that give us meaning in our life, it makes us stronger, it makes us happier, it makes our life more fulfilled,” Caroline Peacock, ACPE certified educator, LCSW, Episcopal priest, and director of spiritual health and community care at the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University in Atlanta, GA, said in a conversation with Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BC, AOCNS^®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS. Peacock discussed how oncology nurses can support patients’ spirituality during cancer care.

What is it like to guide a professional association that serves more than 100,000 oncology nurses? ONS Directors-at-Large Deborah “Hutch” Allen, PhD, RN, CNS, FNP-BC, AOCNP^®, Kris Mathey, MS, APRN-CNP, AOCNP^®, and Jeanene “Gigi” Robison, MSN, APRN, AOCN^®, reflect on how their varied nursing backgrounds and ONS experiences help the ONS Board to support a diverse membership during a conversation with ONS Executive Director Lori Brown. They also shared the professional and personal rewards that nurses can reap when getting involved with ONS at any level.

“Genomics is part and parcel of oncology treatment today. Even if a patient’s genomics might not affect the current choice of therapy, it may do so in the future. The use of genomics and biomarkers is just an evidence-based expansion and extension of our previous care,” ONS member Kristin Daly, MSN, ANP-BC, AOCNP^®, nurse practitioner at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO, said in a conversation with Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BC, AOCNS^®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS. Daly and Weimer discussed oncology nurses’ educational needs to bridge knowledge gaps in cancer genomics, identified genomics tools and resources specifically designed for clinical nursing practice, and shared strategies to implement them inn your patient care processes.

“These policies, procedures, order sets, and algorithms for oncologic emergencies are so important. They give you knowledge in your back pocket: This is the way we’re going to treat this, this is the way to quickly respond to this, and this is the way to treat this in the safest way possible,” ONS member Cassie Durand, MS, RN, CNS, AGCNS-BC, OCN^®, clinical nurse specialist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s Long Island, NY, regional site, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BC, AOCNS^®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS. Durand discussed how to develop and apply procedures to care for patients with oncologic emergencies.

Do you have results of your amazing research that missed the initial deadline to submit an abstract to the 48th Annual ONS Congress®? You’re in luck, because we’ve got you covered. You have another opportunity to submit either a research or industry-supported (non-NCPD) late-breaking abstract to allow others to learn from your project success. 

An altered HOXB13 gene may increase a patient’s risk for developing prostate cancer. The HOXB13 gene is expressed in the prostate beginning in early development and affects prostate cell proliferation and differentiation and androgen receptor regulation. When it acts as a tumor suppressor gene, HOXB13 codes for a protein that regulates cell division. However, altered copies of HOXB13 are inactivated, meaning that it does not function properly or does not produce the protein it codes for, resulting in uncontrolled cell division.

Few things carry more stigma in the United States than death and hospice. Death is familiar in oncology, yet providers may not discuss it with patients until their cancer has progressed to the point that medical intervention is no longer an option. With the American Cancer Society estimating more than 600,000 American deaths from cancer in 2022, it’s time to change our practice.

Patients with germline genetic variants that increase their risk of developing prostate cancer have a lower risk of developing lethal disease when following a healthy lifestyle, according to study findings that researchers reported in European Urology.