Monday, October 20, 2008

Oncology Conference

What did I learn from this two-day Oncology Conference?
That I never want to be a research/study nurse.
That I'm glad I'm not a Doctor.
That I love my job.
That it's more worthwhile to attend conferences that are actually focused on Oncology Nursing, not just Oncology.
No, I actually got a few points of interest from the classes. Here are the highlights:
It takes approximately 25 years to get a drug from being a good idea to being of benefit to patients, i.e. Rituxan, Gleevac, Herceptin. This is too long.
Medical imaging has greatly improved in the past thirty years, to aid prevention, earlier detection and better treatments.
Routine screening mammography form women 40-49 showed decreased mortality due to earlier detection.
MRI is better than traditional screening for high risk women (those with positive genetic factors and family history of breast cancer).
Digital mammography and imaging angiogenesis are new technologies that help to find hidden tumours.
There is a greater risk of breast cancer for women who have dense breasts (OH, GREAT!) :(
Discovery of tumour markers, such as HER-2 help with diagnosis, prognosis and treatment.
Conventional radiology (chest x-rays) is on its' way out, but Doctors have a hard time changing what they've been doing for a hundred years, so they tend to order both, but rely on the newer technology, which is better.
There is an ultrasound machine the size of a Blackberry.
Technology allows the point of care from hospital, to anywhere. i.e. photos of dermatology lesions can be assessed by a Doctor on-line.
Patients have launched on-line peer to peer support and patient education resources.
Most of this information posted by patients is accurate.
Sarcoma is a rare disease, so there are few patients locally.
Most of the studies are focused on children, not adults. So often must extrapolate data, but that is not always accurate.
Sarcoma is a potentially curable disease.
Surgery is the mainstay of treatment with the goal of local control, preservation of function, and limb preservation (95% of the time). Amputations are sometimes still required.
Radiation is used for soft-tissue sarcomas (brachtherapy or post-op external beam radiation). Not recommended for osteosarcomas; bones don't irradiate well.
There is 70% Disease free surivival for osteosarcomas. After resection, if there is 90-95% cell necrosis, that equals a greater event free survival.
See, I was listening.

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