Libsyn Directory

Episode 365: Radiation-Associated Secondary Cancers

Release Date: 05/30/2025

Episode 394: Prostate Cancer Survivorship Considerations for Nurses

The ONS Podcast

“The thought of recurrence is also a psychosocial issue for our patients. They’re being monitored very closely for five years, so there’s always that thought in the back of their head, ‘What if the cancer comes back? What are the next steps? What am I going to do next?’ It’s really important that we have conversations with patients and their families about where they’re at, what we’re looking for, and reassure them that we’ll be with them during this journey and help them through whatever next steps happen,” ONS member Clara Beaver, DNP, RN, AOCNS®, ACNS-BC, manager...

Episode 393: Antibody–Drug Conjugates in Metastatic Breast Cancer

The ONS Podcast

“I’ll go back to the backpack analogy. When your kids come home with a backpack, all of a sudden their homework is not on the desk where it’s supposed to be. It’s in the kitchen; it kind of spreads all over the place, but it’s still in the house. When we give antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs), the chemotherapy does go in, but then it can kind of permeate out of the cell membrane and something right next to it—another cancer cell that might not look exactly like the cancer cell that the chemotherapy was delivered into—is affected and the chemotherapy goes over to that cancer cell...

Episode 392: ONS 50th Anniversary: Stories From the Other Side of Cancer

The ONS Podcast

“Working as an oncology infusion nurse, being oncology certified, attending chapter meetings, going to ONS Congress® has really taught me plenty. But being an oncology patient taught me way more. I know firsthand the fears ‘you have cancer’ brings. Then going through further testing, CT scans, MRIs, genetics, the whole preparation for surgery was something I never considered when I treated a breast cancer patient,” ONS member Catherine Parsons, RN, OCN®, told Valerie Burger, MA, MS, RN, OCN®, CPN, member of the ONS 50th anniversary planning committee, during a conversation about...

Episode 391: Pharmacology 101: Antibody–Drug Conjugates

The ONS Podcast

“Antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs) have three basic parts: the antibody part, the cytotoxic chemo, and the linker that connects the two. First, the antibody part binds to the target on the surface of the cell. Antibodies can be designed to bind to proteins with a very high level of specificity. That’s what gives it the targeted portion. Then the whole thing gets taken up by the cell and broken down, which releases the chemotherapy part. Some sources will call this the ‘payload’ or the ‘warhead.’ That’s the part that’s attached to the ‘heat-seeking’ part, and that’s...

Episode 390: Prostate Cancer Treatment Considerations for Nurses

The ONS Podcast

“Any time the patient hears the word ‘cancer,’ they shut down a little bit, right? They may not hear everything that the oncologist or urologist, or whoever is talking to them about their treatment options, is saying. The oncology nurse is a great person to sit down with the patient and go over the information with them at a level they can understand a little bit more. To go over all the treatment options presented by the physician, and again, make sure that we understand their goals of care,” ONS member Clara Beaver, DNP, RN, AOCNS®, ACNS-BC, manager of clinical education and...

Episode 389: Biomarker Testing for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

The ONS Podcast

“It’s critical to identify those mutations found that are driving the cancer’s growth and guide the personalized treatment based on those results. And important to remember, too, early testing is crucial for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In studies, it has been found to be associated with improved survival outcomes and reduced mortality,” ONS member Vicki Doctor, MS, BSN, BSW, RN, OCN®, precision medicine director at the City of Hope Atlanta, GA, Chicago, IL, and Phoenix, AZ, locations, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing...

Episode 388: ONS 50th Anniversary: Milestones in Oncology Advocacy and Health Policy

The ONS Podcast

“I think we really need to push more of our oncology nurses to get into elected and appointed positions. So often we’re looking at health positions to get involved in, and those are wonderful. We need nurses as secretaries of health, but there are others. We as nurses understand higher education. We understand environment. We understand energy. So I think we look broadly at, what are positions we can get in? Let’s have more nurses run for state legislative offices, for our House of Representatives, for the U.S. Senate,” ONS member Barbara Damron, PhD, LHD, RN, FAAN, told Ryne Wilson,...

Episode 387: Prostate Cancer Screening, Early Detection, and Disparities

The ONS Podcast

“[When] a lot of men think about prostate exams, they immediately think of the glove going on the hand of the physician, and they immediately clench. But really try to talk with them and discuss with them what some of the benefits are of understanding early detection. Even just having those conversations with their providers so that they understand what the risk and benefits are of having screening. And then educate patients on what a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and digital rectal exam (DRE) actually are—how it happens, what it shows, and what the necessary benefits of those are,”...

Episode 386: Interprofessional Navigation and the Oral Anticancer Medication Care Compass

The ONS Podcast

“This was a panel of subject matter experts of various nurses and pharmacists. We often found common ground but also discovered new ideas, different touchpoints, and key junctures along that oral anticancer medication journey. For example, the pharmacists were able to share their insights into their unique workflows within their practice setting. What resulted is a resource that truly reflects that collaborative effort between the disciplines,” ONS member Mary Anderson, BSN, RN, OCN®, senior manager of nursing membership and professional development at the Network for Collaborative...

Episode 385: ONS 50th Anniversary: Evolution of Cancer Survivorship

The ONS Podcast

“It started out by doing a kind of a white paper that we called Imperatives for Quality Cancer Care. Ellen Stovall, our CEO [of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship] at the time, gave this report to Dr. Richard Klausner, who was the head of National Cancer Institute at the time. He called Ellen immediately and said, ‘Why are we not doing something about this?’ Within one year, we had the Office of Cancer Survivorship at NCI,” ONS member Susan Leigh, BSN, RN, told ONS member Ruth Van Gerpen, MS, RN-BC, APRN-CNS, AOCNS®, PMGT-BC, member of the ONS 50th anniversary...

More Episodes

“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 Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS^®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about radiation-associated secondary cancers.

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 May 30, 2026. 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 radiation-associated secondary cancers.

Episode Notes

ONS Voice articles:

To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities.

To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library.

To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org.

Highlights From This Episode

“It’s hypothesized that radiation can also induce different DNA mutations in healthy cells or in tissues surrounding cancers that we’re treating, including alterations in the structure of signal genes or chromosomes, or also causing changes in gene expression, which may help develop a neoplasia or a cancer in a patient’s future. The development of cancer carcinogenesis that is impacted or caused by radiation has to do with the chemicals that are produced, the impact it has on cell proliferation, and how these changes and mutations can also pass on to daughter cells in the future as cells are replicating.” TS 2:34

“Younger people are much more susceptible to having a secondary cancer, especially because we know with treatments, we expect them to live a longer time. And once patients get to 5 and 10 years out from radiation is when we may see a secondary cancer develop. We also have seen research showing that females may be more sensitive to some of the carcinogenic effects of radiation. Underlying diseases and genetic mutations can also impact patients’ risk.” TS 5:27

“I think a big thing is remembering that although the risk is really small, the risks does exist, and so it’s something that we want to bring up with patients. And even if it is something 20 years down the line for a child being treated and making sure that this information is written down somewhere. So when reviewing records, anyone from a care provider to a family member might be able to say, ‘Okay, I see that, and I’m going to keep that on my radar.’ And that’s another big benefit of using NP- and nurse-led survivorship clinics and creating survivorship care plans.” TS 17:20

TOPICS