Lung Cancer

Previous studies have suggested that guideline-recommended therapy improves survival and reduces cost among patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (mNSCLC). The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between guideline-recommended initiation of therapy (GRI) in patients with mNSCLC and patient-reported outcomes (PROs), such as health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and patient-reported cancer symptoms.

The authors present their report on decreasing the time between the physician’s order for LDCT and date of actual screening.

The authors present a case demonstrating the critical role of nurse navigators in community outreach and ultimately early detection and education for patients.

The multidisciplinary care model is perceived to be more patient-centered and efficient for patients with lung cancer than the serial care model, according to Satish K. Kedia, PhD, Professor, Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Memphis, TN, and colleagues.

This article describes the stigma that may be associated with a lung cancer diagnosis and its impact on body image, self-perception, and coping. Also explored are ways in which this stigma may be alleviated by the multidisciplinary oncology team, with particular emphasis on the important role oncology nurses play in the care of these patients.

“There’s a lot we don’t know about lung cancer screening,” according to Denise Aberle, MD, who spoke at the recent American Association for Cancer Research International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research. However, certain measures can be taken to lower false-positive and overdiagnosis rates, lessen costs, ameliorate patient suffering, and correctly identify screening cohorts, she asserted.

Since the publication of the positive results of the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST)—the first lung cancer screening trial to demonstrate a reduction in lung cancer mortality—in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2011, several uncertainties regarding implementation of widespread lung cancer screening have arisen.

The American Cancer Society reports that lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death for both men and women and that more people die each year from lung cancer than from cancer of the colon, breast, and prostate combined.

Lung cancer is the most common type of cancer in the United States.

Maintenance therapy has begun to emerge as a treatment standard for patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease has not progressed after 4 to 6 cycles of frontline chemotherapy.