Epothilone Chemotherapies for Metastatic Breast Cancer: What, When, and How?

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

Release Date: January 2009
Expiration Date: December 2009
Estimated Time to Complete Activity: 54 minutes (Adobe Flash Player and Adobe Acrobat Reader required)

Target Audience

This activity has been designed to meet the educational needs of advanced practice nurses and oncology nurses in caring for patients with breast cancer.

Purpose

To educate nurses on new treatments for metastatic breast cancer including administration guidelines for epothilone chemotherapy and the management of patients receiving them.

Program Overview

Epothilone chemotherapy has recently been approved by the FDA for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer. In this regional CE dinner program, breast cancer nurse experts will address issues pertaining to the use of these agents in clinical practice. An overview of epothilones and their ability to overcome multidrug resistance will be described using 3-D video animation. There will also be a review of the mechanism of action of epothilone chemotherapy and a discussion of administration guidelines. The latter part of the presentation will focus on concerns specific to oncology nurses. Questions addressed will include: How do we safely administer epothilones? What side effects should we anticipate? How will we assess and manage these side effects? Program attendees will receive side-effect assessment and management clinical tools, as well as sample patient education materials, to utilize in their individual clinical practices. Clinical tools incorporated into the syllabus and discussed during the program will include:

Dosing schedules for new agents
Administration instructions for new agents
Assessment/management of peripheral neuropathies

Learning Objectives

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

Describe current standards of care for metastatic breast cancer
Differentiate the mechanisms of action of drugs affecting microtubules
Identify recent clinical trial results on the use of epothilones in metastatic breast cancer
Outline the side-effect profiles of epothilones used to treat patients with breast cancer
Describe appropriate nursing management of patients receiving epothilones

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 and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company 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 and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company. Please refer to the official prescribing information for each product for discussion of approved indications, contraindications, and warnings.

Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest

IMER requires instructors, planners, managers, and other individuals who are in a position to control the content of this activity to disclose any real or apparent conflict of interest they may have as related to the content of this activity. All identified conflicts of interest are thoroughly vetted by IMER for fair balance, scientific objectivity of studies mentioned in the materials or used as the basis for content, and appropriateness of patient care recommendations.

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

Georgia E. Litsas, MSN, RN, APRN, BC, AOCNP®
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Ms. Litsas is a nurse practitioner within the Division of Breast Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston. She received her master’s degree in nursing from Northeastern University, Boston. She is an active member of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society, Oncology Nursing Society, and the Boston Oncology Nursing Society, and lectures regularly on topics related to the care of patients with cancer.

Georgia Litsas, MSN, RN, APRN, BC, AOCNP®, reported a financial interest/relationship or affiliation in the form of: Speakers' Bureau, Genentech BioOncology, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP, and Pfizer, Inc.

Accreditation Statements

This educational activity for 0.9 contact hour 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.

This program has been approved for 1.0 contact hour(s) of continuing education by the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. Program ID 0807340.

IMER is approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider Number 14763 for 1.08 contact hours. A statement of credit will be issued only upon receipt of a completed activity evaluation form.

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

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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.

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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

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