7
The American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging has changed in the past year. It impacts not only our patients' diagnosis, but what we need to teach them regarding treatment options and overall survival.
Treatment options are changing by the minute. In addition to adding known immunotherapy agents to existing chemotherapy regimens, almost daily we add new targeted therapies to the armamentarium. Even radiation changes, adding new more refined treatment modalities to the mix.
RELATED ARTICLES
• Pivot Nurse Improves Patients' Navigation Through Lung Cancer Care
• Lung Cancer Screening: Risk-Targeting Approach vs NLST Eligibility Criteria
We should also remember that some patients do not receive the care that they might receive in other circumstances. Health care disparities exist and oncology navigators must recognize this and take steps to overcome these disparities.
Whether it is identifying populations that are underserved or finding patients who appear to “fall through the cracks,” as nurse navigators and oncology caregivers, it is important to bring these issues to the forefront of program administrators with ways to manage the issues.
Lastly, survivorship is also an important topic. Getting patients to this end goal is only part of the overall responsibility of the oncology navigator. We also need to give our patients the resources to move beyond ourselves to return to the “normal” world. Survivorship letters with copies for their primary care physician practices that document follow up needs is the way
to go. Sometimes, this is difficult to accomplish,
certainly time consuming, but
incredibly important.
TREATMENT OPTIONS
ARE CHANGING BY THE MINUTE