News of note from the current literature.

Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) in older adults is amenable to resolution by nursing oversight that includes early assessment and the selection of appropriate management approaches. Oncology nurses working with older patient populations at high-risk for CRF should partner with rehabilitation colleagues to create and test exercise interventions that reduce the burden of this common symptom.

As we ponder our future, it may also be timely not only to look at our personal lives but also to address our professional growth and maturation in a purposeful way.

Crizotinib is indicated for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that is anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive as detected by an FDA-approved test.

The management of leukemias and lymphomas now includes the use of many targeted therapies. Nurses need to have an understanding of the targeted therapies and their side effects so they can appropriately manage the side effects that their patients with leukemias and lymphomas may experience.
• Precision Medicine in the Care of Patients With Leukemia/Lymphoma
• Expanded Treatment Options for Leukemia/Lymphoma

We still have much to do to fully understand the potential of complementary therapies as important elements in cancer treatment and health. Mind-body and body-based interventions may be able to improve health and prevent disease as effectively as pharmacologic agents—without the toxicities associated with pharmacologics, and as adjuncts to pharmacologic therapies they may help to maximize health and diminish disease with less toxicity.

Many cancer patients experience cachexia. In collaboration with an interdisciplinary team including dietitians, oncology nurses are well positioned to implement proactive, multimodality interventions that improve clinical outcomes and quality of life for these patients.

In a multicenter phase III trial of 360 patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer, synchronous chemoradiotherapy provided better locoregional control without significant added toxicity, investigators for the Bladder Cancer 2001 trial have found.

A web-based interactive support system tailored for cancer patients reduced patients’ feelings of depression and improved their sense of well being, compared with being given access to resources that are publically available on the internet, results of a large 1-year randomized controlled trial have shown.

A multicenter telephone-interview study has found that cancer patients often perceive that communication problems with healthcare providers have contributed to a breakdown in their care, but very few formally report their concerns.

Children diagnosed with non-central nervous system cancers at a very young age tend to reach some neurodevelopmental milestones later than healthy children, according to a new study.

Oral nutritional interventions can improve quality of life and overall nutritional intake in some cancer patients, but do not appear to have any effect on mortality outcomes, according to a recent meta-analysis.

Using detailed patient data and mathematical modeling programs, a US–international team of investigators has concluded that in the US, public health efforts beginning in the 1950s prevented nearly 800,000 deaths from lung cancer between 1975 and 2000.

Reporting interim findings from a multi-institutional assessment of more than 50,000 people 50 to 69 years of age, COLONPREV Study Group investigators from Spain have concluded colonoscopy is better than fecal immunochemical testing (FIT) at detecting adenomas.

Following a large survey of more than 22,000 US women, researchers from H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, in Tampa, Florida, have concluded that a significant proportion of female cancer survivors have poor health behaviors, compared with women who have not had cancer.

A multi-institutional, NCI-funded retrospective study in the New England Journal of Medicine highlights the significant long-term benefit of colonoscopic polypectomy in preventing death from colon cancer, with polypectomy cutting the incidence of colon cancer–related mortality in half compared with the general population.

Researchers from Wellspring, a Canadian nonprofit organization that supports and educates people with cancer, together with a team of patient-support consultants, have developed a 1-day program that appears to have reduced emotional exhaustion and burnout in oncology nurses.

Epidemiologist Jack Cuzick, PhD, and colleagues, writing in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in April, concluded that “tamoxifen-induced reductions in breast density can be used to identify women who will benefit the most from prophylactic treatment with this drug.”

A team of researchers from the University of Connecticut at Storrs and the National Cancer Institute, analyzing US national health data on more than 4,000 racially diverse adults aged 75 years and older, has concluded that despite “ambiguity of recommendations for this group,” cancer screening rates are high in this population.