May 2025 Vol 16, No 5

The adoption of biomarkers and personalized medicine revolutionized healthcare by improving diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment, with navigators playing a critical role in bridging the gap between biomarker technology and patient awareness, access, and education.

Understanding the basics of what cancer care involves is foundational for oncology patient navigators. In the third installment of Navigation Refresh, we delve into basic medical terminology and the role of the navigator in supporting health literacy.

Biomarker advancements are revolutionizing cancer care by enabling personalized treatments, improving patient outcomes, and addressing challenges in testing, access, and care coordination—offering valuable insights into the future of oncology.

Although biomarker-driven targeted therapies for gastric cancer have advanced significantly, many eligible patients are not receiving these treatments, highlighting the urgent need to overcome barriers such as insufficient biomarker testing and socioeconomic disparities.

In this heartfelt reflection, a nurse navigator shares how personalized education and the teach-back method eased a patient’s hesitation with a colonoscopy, emphasizing the critical value of meeting individuals at their level of understanding.

This groundbreaking study reveals how AI-enabled interventions have the potential to revolutionize patient navigation by reducing burnout, increasing capacity, and creating sustainable healthcare solutions tailored to individual patient needs.

The findings on metastatic breast cancer patient navigation don't just highlight training gaps—they point to an opportunity that, if seized, could make all the difference for those who need support most.

A CATCH is a navigation success story where a navigation tactic improved a patient’s situation. This month, we profile the experience of a navigator who coordinated staging scans for her patient to ensure they were completed the day before the patient had her oncology consultation. The May 2025 CATCH is awarded to Kimary Kulig, PhD, MPH, at My Biomarker Navigator.