The ONS Podcast

By: Oncology Nursing Society
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  • Summary

  • Where ONS Voices Talk Cancer Join oncology nurses on the Oncology Nursing Society's award-winning podcast as they sit down to discuss the topics important to nursing practice and treating patients with cancer. ISSN 2998-2308
    Copyright 2025
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Episodes
  • Episode 348: Breast Cancer Diagnostic Considerations for Nurses

    Episode 348: Breast Cancer Diagnostic Considerations for Nurses
    Jan 31 2025
    “We know that some women are going to get called back. And it’s just because usually they can’t see something clearly enough. And so in most cases, those women are going to get cleared with one or two images, and they’re going to say, ‘Oh, we compress that better, we checked it with an ultrasound, we’re fine.’ That woman can go ahead and go. But we don’t want to miss those early breast cancers,” Suzanne Mahon, DNS, RN, AOCN®, AGN-BC, FAAN, professor emeritus at Saint Louis University in Missouri, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about what oncology nurses need to know about breast cancer diagnosis. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0  Earn 0.75 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by January 31, 2027. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to breast cancer diagnostic considerations. Episode Notes  Complete this evaluation for free NCPD. Previous ONS Podcast™ site-specific episodes: Episode 345: Breast Cancer Screening, Detection, and Disparities ONS Voice articles: An Oncology Nurse’s Guide to Cascade Testing Breast Cancer Prevention, Screening, Diagnosis, Treatment, Side Effect, and Survivorship Considerations ONS books: Breast Care Certification Review (second edition) Guide to Breast Care for Oncology Nurses ONS courses: Breast Cancer Bundle Breast Cancer: Prevention, Detection, and Pathophysiology ONS Biomarker Database results for breast cancer ONS Learning Libraries: Breast Cancer Genomics and Precision Oncology   American Cancer Society: Early Detection and Diagnosis Breast Cancer Facts and Figures  Your Breast Pathology Report: Breast Cancer National Comprehensive Cancer Network   National Cancer Institute Breast Cancer—Patient Version To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode “When a woman gets a callback, that is incredibly anxiety provoking, because they’re very scared and they don’t know what it means. And I think that’s a place where oncology nurses can remind—if it’s patients or friends who are asking—that just because you have a call back, doesn’t mean you have a malignancy.” TS 8:16 “We also know that when we call somebody back, that’s very scary and anxiety provoking. And we don’t want to subject women to unnecessary anxiety and stress through the procedure. And if it’s too stressful, they won’t come back again. That is actually a big harm that we don’t want to occur. That’s considered an acceptable amount. So we know that some women are going to get called back, and it’s just because usually they can’t see something clearly enough.” TS 11:26 “I think one of the most important things is to really help that woman understand the biopsy report. So now everybody, with most of the electronic medical records, that woman seeing that biopsy result—maybe before her provider is seeing it, depending on whether they get a chance to call that individual. But, you know, they could get a notification in their medical record, or a new report is available, and they can click on there and they could be looking at something that is very scary, not necessarily a good time, you know, like they’re getting ready to do something. And so that is a problem overall with sometimes getting bad news in oncology.” TS 15:09 “Sometimes it’s really good [for patients to bring] someone who can just be that set of ears or who can answer those questions, who’s emotionally involved but maybe not so emotionally involved, if that makes sense. And I think that that is something we can really encourage people to identify that person who’s going to really be able to support them.” TS 16:42 “When we approach a pathology report, the patient, you know, if they open that on their own, they’re just going to see breast carcinoma, or they aren’t going to look at all of the details of it. They can be quite overwhelming to look at. But I think that it’s important to kind of take the patient through it, step by step, and realize that it’s often a case of repeated measures—that you might do it and...
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    39 mins
  • Episode 347: Care Considerations for Radiopharmaceuticals and Theranostics in Patients With Cancer

    Episode 347: Care Considerations for Radiopharmaceuticals and Theranostics in Patients With Cancer
    Jan 24 2025
    "If you take your normal radiation oncology experience, as we know in radiation oncology, radiations are done by the machines, you know, externally. Nurses deal with the side effects and everything like that, whereas radiopharmaceuticals are given kind of on the internal basis, they’re systemic,” ONS member John Hollman, BSN, RN, OCN®, radiation nurse educator for Texas Oncology, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about caring for patients receiving radiopharmaceuticals and theranostics. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0  Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by January 24, 2027. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to radiopharmaceuticals and theranostics in cancer care. Episode Notes  Complete this evaluation for free NCPD.ONS Podcast™ episodes: Episode 339: A Lesson on Labs: How to Monitor and Educate Patients With Cancer Episode 301: Radiation Oncology: Side Effect and Care Coordination Best Practices Episode 298: Radiation Oncology: Nursing’s Essential Roles Episode 12: The Intersection of Radiation and Medical Oncology Nursing ONS Voice articles: Radiopharmaceuticals and Theranostics Offer New Options for Oncology Nurses to Transform Cancer Care Radiopharmaceuticals Pack a One-Two Punch Against Cancer Oncology Drug Reference Sheet: Radium 223 Dichloride Oncology Drug Reference Sheet: Lutetium Lu 177 Dotatate Oncology Drug Reference Sheet: Lutetium Lu 177 Vipivotide Tetraxetan ONS book: Manual for Radiation Oncology Nursing Practice and Education (fifth edition)ONS courses: Essentials in Advanced Practice Cancer Treatments ONS/ONCC Radiation Therapy Certificate™ Step Outside Your Specialty: Broaden Your Learning Horizon Across ONS Congress™ Session Tracks Share your experience with ONS Voice. To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode "I think most places are now doing the seven days, just to be extra cautious and you know, can't you be around any pregnant women or children, you can’t just be going to Target and stuff like that right after your injection because you are radioactive, and try not to share a bathroom with your family, that can be difficult and that leads into, as we’ve talked about in many talks that we’ve had, the social situation.” TS 8:08 “It’s really up to that nurse to recognize, like a good infusion nurse, to recognize the signs and symptoms of an infusion reaction and then to catch it at the earliest possible moment.” TS 11:42 We’re not really dependent on lab values between treatments, whereas the infusion you have to look at your lab values. These are the game changer.” TS 13:20 “You just hear the term radiation, and you just think of Chernobyl, or you think of like these worst-case, media-blown things and you think, how are you not being dosed with radiation every day? Because they don’t realize that you have this whole radiation safety team that’s required to be overseeing that you’re doing things safely and effectively, that these nurses that are administering these therapies or these therapists that are helping with the therapy are the safest as possible.” TS 18:37 “If it wasn’t safe, we wouldn’t be doing it. You know what I mean? So, there is that implicit bias that I think I can foresee a lot of people trying hard to get over. And if you do have questions, anyone who’s listening, and you’re scared that your center is going to roll this out, please talk to your physicians, please talk to your radiation oncologists, please talk to your radiation safety officers. They can definitely assure and put your fears at rest, hopefully. I 100% trust the radiation safety officers.” TS 19:45 “That’s why the nurses really need to be educated by those radiation safety teams so they can pass those questions, or they can answer those questions, alleviate those fears on consultation—or actually during the week when we’re calling in for questions.” TS 21:07 “I think getting both teams involved, if you’re going to really do this partnership, I find it really rare that it’s ever solely in rad onc. It’s always...
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    28 mins
  • Episode 346: Pharmacology 101: BTK Inhibitors

    Episode 346: Pharmacology 101: BTK Inhibitors
    Jan 17 2025
    "In B cell malignancies, BTKi inhibits that BTK enzyme which is very upstream. It tells NF-κB to stop signaling into the nucleus and then inhibits proliferation and survival of B cells," Puja Patel, PharmD, BCOP, clinical oncology pharmacist at Northwestern Medicine Cancer Center at Delnor Hospital in Geneva, IL, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about BTK inhibitors. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 1.0 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by January 17, 2027. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to the BTK inhibitor drug class. Episode Notes Complete this evaluation for free NCPD.ONS Podcast™ Pharmacology 101 seriesONS Voice articles: BTK Inhibitor Effective for Relapsed Hairy Cell Leukemia FDA Grants Accelerated Approval to Pirtobrutinib for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia and Small Lymphocytic Lymphoma Ibrutinib Is the First Anticancer Agent to Be Negotiated for Medicare Drug Pricing Oncology Drug Reference Sheet: Pirtobrutinib Oncology Drug Reference Sheet: Zanubrutinib ONS books: Clinical Guide to Antineoplastic Therapy: A Chemotherapy Handbook (fourth edition) Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy Guidelines and Recommendations for Practice (second edition)Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing article: B-Cell Malignancies: The Use of Small Molecule Agents for Treatment and Management ONS courses: ONS Cancer Biology™ ONS/ONCC Chemotherapy Immunotherapy Certificate™Safe Handling Basics ONS Guidelines™ and Symptom Interventions: Chemotherapy-Induced DiarrheaPrevention of Bleeding Prevention of Infection: General ONS Learning Library: Oral Anticancer MedicationONS/NCODA/HOPA/ACCC’s Oral Chemotherapy Education SheetsOther resources:Advanced Practice Providers Oncology SummitAsh Publications article: Managing Toxicities of Bruton Tyrosine Kinase InhibitorsBlood Advances article: BTK Inhibitors in CLL: Second-Generation Drugs and Beyond CLL Society Fact SheetsInternational Journal of Molecular Sciences article: Bruton’s Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors: Recent UpdatesNational Cancer Institute article: Two Drugs Show Efficacy against Common Form of LeukemiaNational Comprehensive Cancer Network Guidelines for Patients: Chronic Lymphocytic LeukemiaNational Study of Lymphoma (University of Oxford network site-specific group— Hematology)NCODA’s Positive Quality Intervention resourcesPharmacy Times BTK Inhibitor Comparison ChartsScienceDirect article: Treating CLL with Bruton Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors: The Role of the Outpatient Oncology NurseThe Video Journal of Hematology and Hematological Oncology To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode “1952 we have the discovery by Colonel Ogden Bruton of that severe immunodeficiency due to lack of B-cell maturation, and next linked to e-gamma globular anemia. In 1993, we had Professor Vetrie and colleagues discover that this was actually due to mutation in a kinase, and they called that BTK. And then in 1993 was a discovery of our first BTKi inhibitor in the lab setting, and that’s called LFM-A13. It wasn’t until 2013, so that’s 20 years after BTK kinase was discovered, where ibrutinib was our first-in-class BTK inhibitor, and the success of ibrutinib really promoted the exploration of second- and third-generation BTKis.” TS 6:24 “It’s thought that BTK and other members in the pathway are constitutively phosphorylated, which just means they’re spontaneously on. This leads to this uncontrolled activation of NF- κB signaling and thus uncontrolled proliferation and suppression of apoptosis. So, these B cells are rapidly dividing, but they’re not functioning like they’re supposed to be, meaning they won’t differentiate, or, you know, they won’t grow up to be either a plasma cell, like we talked about, or a memory B cell. They’ve been hacked.” TS 10:11 “This class is generally called—if you have to think of an umbrella term—it’s just called targeted small molecule therapies. Now a subclass is BTKi or Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitors. So, we’re really shifting away from the use of cytotoxic ...
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    53 mins

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Profile Image for Sarah Kamalu

awesome job!

awesome job overall! very good content, very informative. covers a wide verity of subjects.

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Profile Image for Stephanie Drake

Love this!!

I found this Podcast by accident. I'm only 2 episodes in, and I'm hooked!
So awesome.

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