Episode 367: Pharmacology 101: PARP Inhibitors
The ONS Podcast
Episode 367: Pharmacology 101: PARP Inhibitors “We know that in cells that are proliferating very quickly, including cancer cells, single-strand DNA breaks are very common. When that happens, these breaks are often repaired by the PARP enzyme, and the cells can continue their replication process. If we block PARP, that repair cannot happen. So in blocking that, these single-strand breaks then lead to double-strand breaks, which ultimately is leading to cell apoptosis,” Danielle Roman, PharmD, BCOP, manager of clinical pharmacy services at the Allegheny Health Network Cancer Institute in...
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Episode 366: ONS 50th Anniversary: Generations of Nurses Keep Oncology in the Family
The ONS Podcast
“[My mom] would always be very inspirational whenever I would see her studying so long. And when she finally got to be a nurse, I always admired her vocation and compassion with her patients. She would always go above and beyond for all of her patients. I also got inspired a lot by my brother, as well, just seeing how passionate he was for caring for his patients for the families as well, and helping them deal with the any grief or loss that they were experiencing, Carolina Rios, MSN, RN, CPhT, told Valerie Burger, RN, MA, MS, OCN®, CPN, member of the ONS 50th anniversary planning...
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Episode 365: Radiation-Associated Secondary Cancers
The ONS Podcast
“From a radiation standpoint, the biggest thing we’re looking at is the treatment site, the dosage, and the way the radiation has been delivered. There are different ways that we can focus radiation using methods such as intensity-modulated radiotherapy, volumetric modulated arc therapy, flattening radiation beams, and proton beam therapy to try to help minimize radiation exposure to healthy tissues to minimize patient risk for secondary cancers,” ONS member Andrea Matsumoto, DNP, AGACNP-BC, AOCNP®, radiation oncology nurse practitioner at Henry Ford Health in Detroit, MI, told Jaime...
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Episode 364: How to Prepare for a Nursing Examination
The ONS Podcast
“Everyone will probably say this, but it is so true. Do not cram the night before the exam. The most important thing the night before the exam is to get a good night’s sleep. You might be so nervous. You’re like, ‘I can get any new information that matters right before the exam,’ but you can’t. Any information that you know you will have gotten in the time that you spent studying already. Really, you have to trust yourself,” Talia Lapidus, BSN, RN, professional staff nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit at UPMC in Pittsburgh, PA, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS,...
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Episode 363: Lung Cancer Treatment Considerations for Nurses
The ONS Podcast
“A lot of other disease sites, they have some targeted therapies, they have some immunotherapies [IO]. In lung cancer, we have it all. We have chemo. We have IO. We have targeted therapies. We have bispecific T-cell engagers. We have orals, IVs. I think it’s just so important now that, particularly for lung cancer, you have to be well versed on all of these,” ONS member Beth Sandy, MSN, CRNP, thoracic medical oncology nurse practitioner at the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology...
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Episode 362: Pharmacology 101: MET Inhibitors
The ONS Podcast
“The signaling and that binding of the MET and the HGF help, in a downstream way, lead to cell proliferation, cell motility, survival, angiogenesis, and also invasion—so all of those key cancer hallmarks. And because of it being on an epithelial cell, it’s a really good marker because it’s found in many, many different types of cancers, so it makes it what we call kind of a nice actionable mutation,” ONS member Marianne Davies, DNP, ACNP, AOCNP®, FAAN, senior oncology nurse practitioner at Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center in New Haven, CT, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS,...
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Episode 361: ONS 50th Anniversary: The Value of ONS Membership in Advancing the Oncology Nursing Profession
The ONS Podcast
“We spent time today discussing all the ways that owners can have a positive impact on career growth, whether you’re a bedside nurse or just in teaching, research, hospital leadership. More than career growth, I see ONS as kind of a barrier to burnout and a catalyst for professional self-care. I think that no matter what aspect of oncology care you’re involved in, it is a difficult and complex specialty. And I think with that can come a lot of challenges and tough days, and ONS brings a sense of community to that and, specifically, a community that is pushing cancer care forward,”...
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Episode 360: An Overview of Brain Malignancies for Oncology Nurses
The ONS Podcast
“Everyone’s brain is extremely heterogenic, so it’s different. You can put five of us in a room; we can all have the same diagnosis of a [glioblastoma multiforme], but all of ours can be different. They’re highly aggressive biologically. It’s a small area in a hard shell. So trying to get through the blood–brain barrier is different. There’s a lot of areas of hypoxia in the brain. There’s a lot of pressure there. The microbiology is very different—it’s a cold environment versus a hot environment—and then the pathways are just different,” Lori Cappello, MSN, APN-C,...
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Episode 359: Lung Cancer Screening, Early Detection, and Disparities
The ONS Podcast
Episode 359: Lung Cancer Screening, Early Detection, and Disparities “I was actually speaking to a primary care audience back a few weeks ago, and we were talking about lung cancer screening. And they said, ‘Our patients, they don’t want to do it.’ And I said, ‘Do you remind them that lung cancer is curable?’ Because everybody thinks it is a death sentence. But when you’re talking about screening a patient, I think it’s really important to say, ‘Listen, if we find this early, stage I or stage II, our chances of curing this and it never coming back again is upwards of 60%...
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Episode 358: Pharmacology 101: KRAS Inhibitors
The ONS Podcast
“It’s been known for quite a while that [KRAS] is a mutation that leads to cancer development, but for really over four decades, researchers couldn’t figure out a way to target it. And so, it was often considered something that was undruggable. But all of this changed recently. So about four years ago, in 2021, we had the approval of the first KRAS inhibitor. So it’s specifically a KRAS G12C inhibitor known as sotorasib,” Danielle Roman, PharmD, BCOP, manager of clinical pharmacy services at the Allegheny Health Network Cancer Institute in Pittsburgh, PA, told Jaime Weimer, MSN,...
info_outline“I genuinely think nurses and pharmacists need to know why these medicines are called hedgehog inhibitors so that we can, in fact, effectively educate our patients. Just because to date, this class has the weirdest name I’ve encountered, and I almost expect at this point that my patients are going to ask me about it. I think that we need to be informed that, just on, where do these names come from, why is it called this, and does it matter to my patient?” Andrew Ruplin, PharmD, clinical oncology pharmacist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, WA, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about hedgehog pathway inhibitors.
Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod
Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0
Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by March 14, 2027. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.
Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to hedgehog pathway inhibitors used for cancer treatment.
Episode Notes
- Complete this evaluation for free NCPD.
- ONS Podcast™ Pharmacology 101 series
- ONS Voice articles:
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- ONS Guidelines™ and Symptom Interventions:
- ONS Huddle Card: Targeted Therapy
- ONS Learning Libraries:
- Oral Chemotherapy Education Sheets
- American Association for Cancer Research article: Hedgehog Pathway Inhibitors: A New Therapeutic Class for the Treatment of Acute Myeloid Leukemia
- American Journal of Clinical Dermatology article: Evaluation of the Tolerability of Hedgehog Pathway Inhibitors in the Treatment of Advanced Basal Cell Carcinoma: A Narrative Review of Treatment Strategies
- Cureas article: Hedgehog Pathway Inhibitors: Clinical Implications and Resistance in the Treatment of Basal Cell Carcinoma
- International Journal of Molecular Sciences article: Hedgehog Pathway Inhibitors as Targeted Cancer Therapy and Strategies to Overcome Drug Resistance
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Highlights From This Episode
“Many patients unfortunately will have side effects with this class. I mean—and I know that’s not controversial—but you actually find callouts in some of the kind of the national consensus guidelines. These treatments might not be tolerable for a decent number of patients. Some of these side effects can certainly reduce quality of life. Again, nothing that controversial here when we say it out loud, but just the frequency with which it occurs can make it quite difficult for some patients.” TS 9:13
“Certainly, based on what we said before, I think one of the easiest things to do for patients starting this class is to just make sure that they have really classical supportive medicines like antidiarrheals and antiemetics before they start treatment. Diarrhea, nausea occurred in about 20%–40% of patients across trials. So certainly patients should be aware of that risk. Again, not a controversial side effect, but it’s just simple things we can do to make sure that our patients are quick to start treatment is to make sure that they have these medicines and they’re educated on how to use them.” TS 11:21
“I think patients need to be aware that side effects, as I had mentioned before, can be especially frequent with this class. So for a patient, they need to be aware that communicating your needs to your oncology team is really crucial to their own ability to use these treatments with minimal interruptions.” TS 14:45
“I think that regardless of whoever is following up with our patients, though, as our arsenal of oral anticancer therapies does continue to expand, both nurses and pharmacists need to have specialized knowledge of these agents to be successful in their patient care roles.” TS 18:28
“When there are clear recommendations for reproductive health, as I summarized before with these agents, I obviously think we need to be aware of them and not just defer to these generic recommendations. Because if you just defer to, ‘Well, use barrier contraception and then for a week after your last dose,’ you know, ‘Okay, it’s not true with these agents.’” TS 24:37