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When Harold P. Freeman, MD, first coined the phrase “navigation” for breast cancer patients in New York City in the 1990s, I am not sure anyone realized the impact that this nursing specialty would have on other populations of women in the future. Through his medical practice, Dr Freeman noted that patients who were poor and/or of minority status presented with advanced stages of breast cancer and were more likely to die of their disease.

Nutrition plays an important role throughout the continuum of lung cancer. It is well documented that the best protection from lung cancer is to avoid smoking, but it is also protective to eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables.

In patients with heavily pretreated relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, subcutaneous daratumumab (DARA SC) demonstrated efficacy similar to the IV formulation (DARA IV), but with fewer infusion-related reactions, according to Saad Z. Usmani, MD, from Levine Cancer Institute/Atrium Health in Charlotte, NC. These findings come from an update of the phase 3 COLUMBA trial presented at the 2019 ASH Annual Meeting.

Understanding your role (and setting boundaries) allows you to remain focused on the tenets of oncology navigation—providing compassionate patient-centered care.

An Interview with Joanita Miranda, MSW, LCSW, OSW-C

Pivotal phase 3 data demonstrated treatment with luspatercept resulted in statistically significant increased red blood cell transfusion independence compared with placebo.

On January 29, 2020, Eli Lilly announced that the FDA granted priority review to their New Drug Application for selpercatinib (LOXO-292) for the treatment of patients with advanced RET fusion-positive non–small-cell lung cancer, RET-mutant medullary thyroid cancer, and RET fusion-positive thyroid cancer. The FDA is aiming to provide its decision on the approval of selpercatinib in the third quarter of 2020.

Have you identified a gap in care, a gap in knowledge, or a problem in your clinical practice that needs solving? What tactics have you implemented in your practice setting that have improved patient care? What circumstance inspired you to make a change in your practice?