Roundtable Case Discussions on Lung Cancer Symptom Management

This program was presented as a continuing education regional symposium for oncology nurses.

Release Date: March 2009
Expiration Date: February 2010
Estimated Time to Complete Activity: 64 minutes
(Adobe Flash Player and Adobe Acrobat Reader required)

Target Audience

This activity is designed to meet the educational needs of oncology nurses and related healthcare professionals working with oncology patients.

Purpose

To educate oncology nurses on the most recent treatment strategies for the management of patients with lung cancer.

Program Overview

The treatment paradigm of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has shifted in recent years. The inclusion of novel chemotherapeutic agents and targeted therapies into the multimodality approach has resulted in improved patient outcomes. However, the severity and duration of side effects associated with these agents can impact quality of life as well as efficacy of therapy as it is often necessary to adjust treatment schedules, sequences, doses and number of cycles to alleviate adverse events. Oncology nurses play a critical role in ensuring the optimal delivery of these agents. During this interactive roundtable discussion, an oncology nurse thought leader will review current therapeutic options and present latest nursing management strategies for patients receiving treatment for NSCLC. The remainder of the program will focus on casebased presentations highlighting the clinical course of four patients with NSCLC who have been treated with a variety of therapeutic regimens. These case studies will allow the audience to explore the journey from diagnosis through treatment, including side effect onset and resolution. The discussion will provide an explanation of the rationale behind the selection of each specific treatment approach for these patients. The goal is to assist oncology nurse attendees in their critical evaluation of individualized treatment planning based on a patient’s risk profile, disease presentation, and lifestyle. Following the case studies, each table of participants will collaborate to address a list of questions relating to the management of the case, with one nurse from each table sharing the critical analysis. Faculty will provide expert feedback to these interactive sessions.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this program, participants should be better able to:

Describe current treatment for patients with NSCLC
Discuss latest clinical research developments in NSCLC
Outline administration guidelines for therapies used in the treatment
of NSCLC
Describe nursing management strategies for common toxicities associated with NSCLC therapies
Outline appropriate treatment strategies for the older patient with NSCLC

Disclosure of Unlabeled Use

This educational activity may contain discussion of published and/or investigational uses of agents that are not indicated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. IMER, Genentech BioOncology, OSI Oncology, and sanofi-aventis U.S., do not recommend the use of any agent outside of the labeled indications.

The opinions expressed in the educational activity are those of the faculty and do not necessarily represent the views of IMER, Genentech BioOncology, OSI Oncology, and sanofi-aventis U.S. Please refer to the official prescribing information for each product for discussion of approved indications, contraindications, and warnings.

Disclaimer

Participants have an implied responsibility to use the newly acquired information to enhance patient outcomes and their own professional development. The information presented in this activity is not meant to serve as a guideline for patient management. Any procedures, medications, or other courses of diagnosis or treatment discussed or suggested in this activity should not be used by clinicians without evaluation of their patients’ conditions and possible contraindications on dangers in use, review of any applicable manufacturer’s product information, and comparison with recommendations of other authorities.

Faculty

Teresa Knoop, MSN, RN, AOCN^®
Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville, Tennessee

Ms. Knoop is a clinical nurse specialist and supervisor at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center Information Program, in Nashville, Tennessee, where she provides information to healthcare professionals and consumers about cancer clinical trials and services. She received her master’s degree in nursing from Vanderbilt University School of Nursing and serves as an adjunct faculty member. Ms. Knoop has more than 25 years of oncology nursing experience and frequently lectures on the topics of molecularly targeted cancer therapies and cancer clinical trials. She is also the co-editor of the Oncology Nursing Society publication, Oncology Supportive Care Quarterly, as well as having published numerous articles in journals such as Oncology, Seminars in Oncology Nursing, and Journal of Infusion Nursing.

Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest

The Institute for Medical Education & Research (IMER) assesses conflict of interest with its instructors, planners, managers, and other individuals who are in a position to control the content of CE/CME activities. All relevant conflicts of interest that are identified are thoroughly vetted by IMER for fair balance, scientific objectivity of studies utilized in this activity, and patient care recommendations. IMER is committed to providing its learners with high quality CE/CME activities and related materials that promote improvements or quality in healthcare and not a specific proprietary business interest of a commercial interest.

The faculty reported the following financial relationships or relationships to products or devices they or their spouse/life partner have with commercial interests related to the content of this CE/CME activity:

Teresa Knoop reported a financial interest/relationship or affiliation in the form of: Consultant, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, and Amgen, Inc.; Speakers' Bureaus, Amgen, Inc. and Genentech BioOncology.

The planners and managers reported the following financial relationships or relationships to products or devices they or their spouse/life partner have with commercial interests related to the content of this educational activity:

The following IMER planners and managers, Michael Bramwell; Lourdes Briz, BS; Timothy J. DiChiara, PhD; Ninotchka Doleyres, MPH; Dorothy Dulko, PhD, RN, AOCNP-C^®; Elisheva Hertz, BSN, RN, OCN^®; Madelyn T. Herzfeld, BSN, RN, OCN^®; Davecia Ragoonath-Cameron, MS; Matthew Weeks, BA, reported no financial relationships or relationships to products or devices they or their spouse/life partner have with commercial interests related to the content of this educational activity.

Accreditation Statements

This educational activity for up to 1.07 contact hours will be provided by IMER. IMER is an approved provider of continuing education by the Georgia Nurses Association, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.

IMER is approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider Number 14763 for 1.28 contact hours. Application pending approval with the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (including pharmacology hours).

Safeguards Against Commercial Bias

IMER affirms that the content and format of its CE activities and related materials promote improvements and quality in healthcare and do not promote a specific proprietary business interest of a commercial entity. To this end, IMER employs several strategies to ensure the absence of commercial bias, including but not limited to review of all planned content for CE activities sponsored by IMER to ensure adherence to the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s criteria and operational requirements and the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education’s content validation statements and resolution of any actual or perceived conflict of interest that exist. We employ three metrics as we review materials:

1. Fair balance

a.	Recommendations or emphasis must fairly represent and be based on a reasonable and valid interpretation of the information available on the subject matter
b.	No single product or service is overrepresented when other equal competing products or services are available for inclusion

2.	Scientific objectivity of studies mentioned in the materials or used as the basis for content
3.	Appropriateness of patient care recommendations made to learners

Privacy Policy

When you participate in an educational activity provided by IMER, we ask you for your name, degree, affiliation, street address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address (the “Information”). We use that Information in the following ways:

We use the Information to grade your posttest and to send you a certificate of completion of the educational activity. If we use a third-party company to grade your posttest and issue certificates of completion, we will give the Information to that company for that purpose only.

For each educational activity that you take, you must complete an evaluation questionnaire. That questionnaire asks if you are willing to participate in a follow-up survey. If you answer yes, we will use your name and contact information to send you the survey.

We may use the Information to invite you to participate in other educational activities that IMER or its affiliates may offer.

On occasion, the commercial supporter of a educational activity will ask us for a list of the people who participated in that activity, so that it may document the first level of outcomes-based evaluation in the educational activity (ie, who attended, which medical specialties/practices were represented, how this compares to the target audience, and whether the activity needs to be repeated because significant numbers of the target audience did not attend). In that event, we will provide the supporter with your name, title and affiliation, but we will request in writing that the supporter not contact you directly for any purpose.

If our company is acquired or merged into another company, we may make the Information available to the new owner/entity to use in the ways described above, to enable it to continue our business.

Any changes to our privacy policy will be posted here.

Method of Participation

There are no fees for participating and receiving nursing contact hours for this activity.

Participants must complete the posttest by recording the best answer to each question. Once you finished your test and completed the subsequent evaluation form, click submit test to send your responsed to us. Your test will be immediately reviewed and if you receive a passing grade of 70% or better, you will then be directed to print your certificate online.

Media

Web site