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...
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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,...
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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,”...
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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...
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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...
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Episode 384: Learn About Scalp Cooling for Chemotherapy-Induced Alopecia
The ONS Podcast
“Chemotherapy-induced alopecia does cause a lot of stress. It’s associated with lower quality of life. Scalp cooling may really help improve quality of life. Some studies have shown that women in the scalp cooling group felt less upset about losing their hair and less dissatisfied with their appearance compared to the women in the control group that didn’t receive any scalp cooling. So a lot of these studies are showing it does have a very positive impact on psychosocial feelings and side effects in relation to overall cancer treatment,” ONS member Jaclyn Andronico, MSN, CNS, OCN®,...
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Episode 383: Pharmacology 101: Bispecific Antibodies
The ONS Podcast
“I think that this is an area that is exploding. Working with drug development, I see new agents all the time, with unique targets I’ve never heard about, with targets I have heard about used in a different way. So, I really think we’re going to see more and more bispecifics. A lot of these drugs are used second line, third line, fourth line. I would not be surprised if they moved up in treatment, especially as we learn safer ways to give these drugs,” ONS member Moe Schwartz, PharmD, BCOP, FHOP, professor of pharmacy practice at the James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy at the...
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Episode 382: Radiation Oncology Treatment Care for Pediatric Patients
The ONS Podcast
“I think sometimes people don’t expect pediatric patients to handle radiation as well as they do. They may have a family member who also had radiation for breast cancer or for prostate cancer and they were an older adult and had really severe side effects. And then they say, ‘Oh, no, I’ve got to put my little baby through this. I don’t really want to do this.’ We say kids are very different in how they handle this. They’re very resilient, so we can provide good education about that,” Elizabeth Cummings, MSN, CPNP-AC, CPHON®, radiation oncology nurse practitioner at...
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Episode 381: ONS 50th Anniversary: The Evolution of Oncology Nursing Roles
The ONS Podcast
“As ONS continues to look ahead, its commitment to shaping the future of oncology nursing remains unwavering. ONS is proactively developing the tools, capabilities, and strategies needed to support oncology nurses in a rapidly evolving healthcare landscape. ONS will continue to set the standard, ensuring that oncology nurses are equipped with clinical expertise, collaborative skills, technology proficiency, and mentorship necessary to thrive,” ONS member Diane Barber, PhD, APRN, ANP-BC, AOCNP®, FAANP, FAAN, member of the ONS 50th anniversary committee, said regarding the continuously...
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Episode 380: Colorectal Cancer Survivorship Considerations for Nurses
The ONS Podcast
“One powerful, overlooked aspect of colorectal cancer survivorship is the emotional and identity transformation that our survivors undergo—and really how little space is given in the clinical arena for that. No one really talks about this ‘invisible recovery.’ Facing mortality can lead to prolonged changes in values, relationships, and life goals. And these experiences aren’t captured in lab results or imaging scans, but they really shape how survivors live, love, and heal and continue with their lives,” ONS member Kris Mathey, DNP, APRN-CNP, AOCNP®, gastrointestinal...
info_outline“Next-generation sequencing, or NGS, can be used to help us determine if the patient has specific biomarkers we can identify and use to target for treatment. Certain findings can tell us if a particular treatment might work for that patient, and we can see if there are any genetic variants we might have a biomarker targeted agent to use to treat them with,” ONS member Jackie Peterson, MSN, RN, OCN®, NE-BC, MBA, ambulatory nurse manager at the University of Chicago Medical Center in Illinois, told Lenise Taylor, MN, RN, AOCNS®, BMTCN®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a conversation about prostate cancer and biomarker testing.
This podcast is sponsored by AstraZeneca and is not eligible for NCPD contact hours. ONS is solely responsible for the criteria, objectives, content, quality, and scientific integrity of its programs and publications.
Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod
Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0
Episode Notes
- This episode is not eligible for NCPD.
- ONS Podcast™ episodes:
- ONS Voice articles:
- An Oncology Nurse's Guide to Cascade Testing
- Genetic Disorder Reference Sheet: BRCA1 and BRCA2 Hereditary Disorders
- Genetic Disorder Reference Sheet: Lynch Syndrome (Hereditary Nonpolyposis Colorectal Cancer)
- Germline and Somatic Variants: What Is the Difference?
- Help Patients Understand Genomic Variants of Unknown Significance
- Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials Don't Reflect Racial Diversity—And It's Getting Worse Over Time
- Prostate Cancer Disparities Disappear With Equal Access to Care
- Prostate Cancer Prevention, Screening, Treatment, and Survivorship Recommendations
- The Case of the Genomics-Guided Care for Prostate Cancer
- ONS book: Understanding Genomic and Hereditary Cancer Risk: A Handbook for Oncology Nurses
- ONS course: Genomic Foundations for Precision Oncology
- Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing articles:
- Oncology Nursing Forum article: Identification of Symptom Profiles in Prostate Cancer Survivors
- Other ONS Resources:
- Biomarker Database (refine by prostate cancer or specific biomarkers)
- Clinical tool/case study: Biomarker Testing in Prostate Cancer: The Role of the Oncology Nurse
- Genomics and Precision Oncology Learning Library
- Huddle Card: Genomic Biomarkers
- Infographic: Talking to Your Patient About a Germline Variant of Uncertain Significance (VUS)
- American Cancer Society - Genetic Testing and Counseling for Prostate Cancer Risk
- American Cancer Society - Prostate Cancer
- Clinicaltrials.gov
- National Cancer Institute - Prostate Cancer
- National Comprehensive Cancer Network
- ZERO Prostate Cancer
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
“Some of the risk factors for developing prostate cancer include age, race, family history, and certain genetic changes or variants. Prostate cancer has some hereditary components, but most prostate cancer occurs in men without any significant family history of it.” TS 1:31
“Key biomarkers include PSA and prostate cancer gene 3, which is PCA3, and prostate-specific membrane antigen, or PSMA. Other biomarkers that are important for us to test include BRCA1, BRCA2, and Lynch syndrome–associated genes, which are MLH1, MSH2, MSH6, PMS2, and EPCAM. Biomarkers can be collected via your blood, urine, saliva, or tissue samples, so these are different ways that we can test and look for biomarkers in our patients.” TS 3:24
“It does matter how advanced the disease is. Usually, for our castrate-sensitive patients, they respond better to androgen deprivation therapy because that really is slowing down the growth of the cancer by reducing the available testosterone that the cancer needs to grow. Whereas our patients that are more advanced and have castrate-resistant prostate cancer, that cancer will continue to grow despite having the lowered testosterone levels, so they might need additional layers of treatment to really get their cancer under control.” TS 7:50
“When I talk to [patients] about biomarker testing, I tell them it’s another tool in our toolbox that we can use to help us determine if they might benefit from other therapy options now or in the future. I tell them that sometimes we’ll get a report back with a variant of unknown significance, and basically that means that we don’t really know whether or not this has an impact on their health or risk factors for the disease. That can sometimes be a little bit of a concern for these patients, so we just have to reassure them that we’re continually doing research around biomarker testing. The science is always advancing, so if there’s something that [researchers] find in the future, we’ll make them aware of that.” TS 9:08
“One of the biggest topics I think about is the inequity that exists in biomarker testing and research, especially surrounding the African American population. When these tests were developed, that population really wasn’t studied as much, so there’s not a lot of good data yet to make a decision or impact on those patients and that population.” TS: 12:30