AONN+ Conference Abstracts

Advance care planning (ACP) is central to patient-centered care and improves alignment between patient preferences and care received at end-of-life.

A recent needs assessment for Camden County, NJ, shows that residents’ compliance with cancer screening recommendations for colon (65%), breast (73%), and cervical (74%) cancers does not meet Healthy People 2020 guidelines.

Palliative care is a collaborative approach that improves quality of life for patients and families but is often provided too late.

The Academy of Oncology Nurse & Patient Navigators (AONN+) promotes the goal to share best practices for survivorship and to address the question “Does the Survivorship Care Plan (SCP) meet patient goals?” (Staci Oertle, RN, MSN, APN, AOCNP, AONN+ Survivorship Committee).

With the increasing cancer survivor population comes the need to develop recommendations about how to optimally care for these survivors.

Survivorship care recommendations exist to support a large and growing population of cancer survivors, yet little is known about survivors’ ongoing unmet needs.

In 2005, the Institute of Medicine published “From Cancer Patient to Cancer Survivor: Lost in Transition.” The report highlights the long-term medical and psychosocial consequences of cancer treatment and provides a foundation for survivorship programs today.

Thoracic surgeons remain involved with the long-term care of their cancer patients, usually in surveilling for recurrence. However, with an increasing survivor population, little is known on their other supportive needs.

Women diagnosed with breast cancer before age 45 face unique survivorship challenges, including early menopause, late effects of treatment, psychosocial distress, and sex and intimacy changes.

The phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway is frequently activated in breast cancer and can promote tumor growth, progression, and resistance to anticancer therapies such as endocrine therapy (ET).