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Current literature suggest that patients with cancer experience distress.

Nurse navigation and distress monitoring will go hand in hand as the American College of Surgeons’ Commission on Cancer institutes its Cancer Program Standards 2012: Ensuring Patient-Centered Care as part of its accreditation standards beginning January 1, 2012.

Having identified healthcare disparities reflected in the incidence of morbidity and mortality of breast cancer among Hispanic/Latina women (HLW), a team of nurses, Gina Miranda-Diaz, MSN, MPH, RN-CBPN-I; Magaly Fernandez-Ghander, BSN, MBA, RN; and Ivette Cora-Gonzalez, MSN, RN, conducted an assessment of breast healthcare disparities in Union City, New Jersey. As a result of those findings, Miranda-Diaz has initiated a navigation program for this population. The program seeks to increase screening rates among HLW, with the goal of reducing mortality through early diagnosis.

In March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the “Cancer Survivors— United States, 2007” report.

The number of women with a personal history of breast cancer is increasing, and these women have a long-term risk of developing a new or recurrent cancer in the conserved breast or a new cancer in the contralateral breast. Consensus-based recommendations for surveillance of breast cancer survivors include annual mammography; however, high-quality evidence is lacking on outcomes of mammography screening in these women.

On behalf of our editorial board, it is my pleasure to present this issue of Journal of Oncology Navigation & Survivorship (JONS) to you, our reading community.

Breast cancer accounts for 1 in every 3 cancers diagnosed in American women today. About 155,000 women are living with metastatic breast cancer in the United States, and this number is expected to increase to 162,000 in 2011.

Cancer survivors are living longer and, with more than one-third of the American population experiencing a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime, it is critical to focus attention on the long-term needs of survivors.

Outcomes from the roundtable held in conjunction with the George Washington Cancer Institute Cancer Survivorship Research and Health Disparities Symposium have far-reaching implications that will impact clinical practice and how we, as clinicians, address cancer survivorship care in the future.

Patients coping with the stresses of cancer can experience depressive symptoms, with an estimated 22% to 29% of newly diagnosed patients experiencing major depressive disorder (MDD; Raison CL, Miller AH. Biol Psychiatry. 2003;54:283-294).