Episode 387: Prostate Cancer Screening, Early Detection, and Disparities
Release Date: 10/31/2025
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...
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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...
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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...
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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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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...
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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...
info_outline“[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,” ONS member Clara Beaver, DNP, RN, AOCNS®, ACNS-BC, manager of clinical education and clinical nurse specialist at Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, MI, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about prostate cancer screening, early detection, and disparities.
Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod
Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0
Earn 0.25 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by October 31, 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 prostate screening, early detection, and disparities.
Episode Notes
- Complete this evaluation for free NCPD.
- ONS Podcast™ Episode 149: Health Disparities and Barriers in Metastatic Castration-Sensitive Prostate Cancer
- ONS Voice articles:
- Gender-Affirming Hormones May Lower PSA and Delay Prostate Cancer Diagnosis in Transgender Women
- Healthy Lifestyles Reduce Prostate Cancer Mortality in Patients With Genetic Risk
- Hispanic Patients Are at Higher Risk for Aggressive Prostate Cancer but Less Likely to Get Treatment
- Leveling State-Level Tax Policies May Increase Equality in Cancer Screening and Mortality Rates
- Most Cancer Screening Guidelines Don’t Disclose Potential Harms
- 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 article: Barriers and Solutions to Cancer Screening in Gender Minority Populations
- Oncology Nursing Forum articles:
- Other ONS resources:
- National Institutes of Health prostate cancer screening page
- U.S. Preventive Services Task Force prostate cancer screening recommendation statement
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
“The recommendations are men [aged] 45 who are at high risk, including African American men and men who have a first-degree relative who has been diagnosed with prostate cancer younger than 65 should go through screening. And men aged 40 at an even higher risk, these are the men that have that one first-degree relative who has had prostate cancer before 65. Screening includes the PSA blood test and a digital exam. Those are the screening recommendations, although they are a little bit controversial.” TS 3:42
“You still see PSAs and DREs as the first line because they’re easier for primary care providers to perform. ... Those are typically covered by insurance, so they still play that role in screening. But with the advent of MRIs and biomarkers, these have really helped refine that screening process and determine treatment options for our patients. Again, those patients who may be at a bit of a higher risk could go for an MRI or have biomarkers completed. Or if they’re on that verge with their Gleason score, instead of doing a biopsy, they may send the patient for an MRI or do biomarkers for that patient. ... These updated technologies put [patients] a little bit more at ease that someone’s watching what’s going on, and they don’t have to have anything invasive done to see where they’re at with their staging.” TS 4:35
“Disparities in screening access exist based on race, socioeconomic status, gender identity, education, and geography. It’s really hard in rural areas to get primary care providers or urologists who can actually see these patients, [and] sometimes in urban areas. So socioeconomic status can affect that, but also where a person lives. African American men with lower incomes and people in rural areas face the greatest barriers to receiving screening. It’s also important to encourage anyone with a prostate to be screened and offer gender-neutral settings for patients to feel comfortable.” TS 7:50
“I think a lot of men feel like if they have no symptoms, they don’t have prostate cancer ... so a lot of patients may put off screening because they feel fine, [they] haven’t had any urinary symptoms, it doesn’t run in their family. ...With prostate cancer, there usually are not symptoms that a patient’s having—they may have some urinary issues or some pain—but it’s not very frequent that they have that. So, just making sure our patients understand that even though they’re not feeling something, it doesn’t mean there’s not something else going on there.” TS 12:53
“Prostate cancer found at an early age can be very curable, so it’s really important for men to have those conversations with their providers about the risk and benefits of screening. And anyone that we can help along the way to be able to have those conversations, I think is a great thing for oncology nurses to do.” TS 15:44