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Episode 382: Radiation Oncology Treatment Care for Pediatric Patients

Release Date: 09/26/2025

Episode 400: Pharmacology 101: Radioimmunoconjugates

The ONS Podcast

“Radioimmunoconjugates work through a dual mechanism that combines immunologic targeting with localized radiation delivery. The monoclonal antibody components bind to specific tumor-associated antigens such as CD20, expressed on malignant B cells. Once found, the attached radioisotope delivers beta radiation directly to the tumor, causing DNA damage and cell death,” Sabrina Enoch, MSN, RN, OCN®, CNMT, NMTCB (CT), theranostics clinical specialist at Highlands Oncology in Rogers, AR, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a...

Episode 399: National Hazardous Drug Exposure Registry

The ONS Podcast

“The United States does not have a national cancer registry. We have a bunch of state registries. Some of those registries do collaborate and share information, but the issue is the registries that do exist typically do not report cancer by occupation. So, we cannot get our arms around the potential work-relatedness of the health outcome given the current way the state registries collect information. What we’re trying to set up, is a way to make what is currently an invisible risk, visible,” ONS member Melissa McDiarmid, MD, MPH, DABT, professor of medicine and epidemiology and public...

Episode 398: An Overview of Multiple Myeloma for Oncology Nurses

The ONS Podcast

“[Multiple myeloma] is very treatable, very manageable, but right now it is still considered an incurable disease. So, patients are on this journey with myeloma for the long term. It’s very important for us to realize that during their journey, we will see them repeatedly. They are going to be part of our work family. They will be with us for a while. I think it’s our job to be their advocate. To be really focused on not just the disease, but periodically assessing that financial burden and psychosocial aspect,” Ann McNeill, RN, MSN, APN, nurse practitioner at the John Theurer Cancer...

Episode 397: Cancer Symptom Management Basics: Ototoxicity

The ONS Podcast

“Referring patients to audiology early on has shown dramatic reduction in hearing loss or complications because the audiologist can really see where were they at before they started chemotherapy, where were they at during, if they get an audiogram during their treatment. And then after treatment, it’s really important for them to see an audiologist because this is really a survivorship journey for them. And as nurses, the ‘so what’: We are the first line of defense,” ONS member Jennessa Rooker, PhD, RN, OCN®, director of nursing excellence at the Tampa General Hospital Cancer...

Episode 396: Nursing Considerations From the ONS/ASCO Extravasation Guideline

The ONS Podcast

“We proposed a concept to the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), recognizing that extravasation management requires significant interdisciplinary collaboration and rapid action. There can occasionally be uncertainty or lack of clear guidance when an extravasation event occurs, and our objective was to look at this evidence with the expert panel to create a resource to support oncology teams overall. We hope that the guideline can help mitigate harm and improve patient outcomes,” Caroline Clark, MSN, APRN, AGCNS-BC, OCN®, EBP-C, director of guidelines and quality at ONS, told...

Episode 395: Pharmacology 101: Monoclonal Antibodies

The ONS Podcast

“They [monoclonal antibodies] are able to cause tumor cell death by binding to and blocking to necessary growth factor signaling pathways for tumor cell survival. That’s going to be dependent on the target of the antibody, but I’ll give an example of epidermal growth factor, or EGFR. This is overexpressed in several different kinds of cancers where activation of this growth factor increases the amount of proliferation and migration of cancer cells. So, if we bind to it and block to it, then that would help halt these pathways and stop cancer cell growth,” Carissa Ganihong, PharmD,...

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...

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“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 Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS^®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about radiation treatment care for pediatric patients.

Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod

Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0

Earn 0.75 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by September 26, 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: Learner will report an increase in knowledge related to radiation oncology treatment care for pediatric patients.

Episode Notes

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

“I think one of the things to think about with kids is sometimes they’re not as forthcoming with what's going on, and sometimes it’s a little bit harder to understand. Sometimes that’s just because developmentally, they’re much younger. A 1-year-old can’t exactly tell you what’s wrong. And so you’re really trying to figure it out based on their cues versus a teenager who can tell you, but maybe they’re too embarrassed about something in a way that an adult might not be.” TS 7:01

“Child life specialists are incredible. ... They provide age-appropriate education and explanations for patients, so talking to a 3-year-old about cancer is very different from an 8-year-old or even a teenager. They really are able to meet each patient exactly where they are and at the level that they are, and then provide the appropriate amount of information, which is so helpful for a patient since they learn to build trust and cope with their treatment and [they feel like they] have somebody who can relay that information in a clear and concise way.” TS 11:16

“There’s certainly growing concern about the potential effects of anesthesia on brain health, especially in a vulnerable population like very young children, which are the ones who need anesthesia. We really try to mitigate this by optimizing our anesthetic agents, so we’ll use propofol, which has a really quick onset and offset. And even when the radiation treatment is done, they’ll stop the propofol in the radiation room—even though they are still walking back to recovery, just to minimize the amount of time that it’s on—and trying to use the lowest dose possible. We also [explore] a lot of nonanesthetic strategies, [like] child life support, trying to introduce video distraction when we can, and having music and audiobooks.” TS 17:47

“[In] pediatrics, the patient, not the parent, is your patient. And that can look really different for a 3-year-old versus a 17-year-old. Somebody who can’t officially sign consent, but they certainly have a lot of buy-in about the things that reach their body, versus a 3-year-old, where the parents are really taking ownership of that. I think sometimes it’s tricky in the world of pediatrics as we think about the ethics of ‘Who are we training here? Is it the patients? Is it the parents?’ And we continue to advocate for our patients.” TS 23:32

“I think that pediatric patients still want to be normal kids. They still want to do their normal activities. ... Our pediatric patients, a lot of times, have healthier tissues. They haven’t seen as much wear and tear. They haven’t developed the bad habits of some adults. They don’t have the same environmental exposures, they’re not smoking, they probably have fewer comorbidities. ... They’re a different population. ... They’re just amazing. They still want to be a kid, they still want to go to school, they still want to be with their friends. It’s really encouraging to see that.” TS 36:03

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