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The ONS PodcastAuthor: Oncology Nursing Society
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 Language: en Genres: Education, Health & Fitness, Medicine Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Episode 441: Care Coordination and Patient Education in Biomarker Testing
Episode 441
Friday, 13 November, 2026
"A lot of people are worried if they wait a week that somehow their disease is going to get out of control and become worse. That's a common fear for anyone with cancer. I think that any delay makes them nervous. So just reassuring them that the time it takes to get biomarkers will not harm them and will actually be beneficial in hopefully providing targeted therapy for their disease to give them the best outcome possible," ONS member Becky Sousa, MSN, RN, OCN®, AMB-BC, nurse coordinator at the Women's Cancer Center Gyn-Oncology Stanford Hospitals and Clinics in California, told Katie Hubbard, MSN, RN, OCN®, NPD-BC, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a conversation about care coordination for biomarker testing. This podcast episode was produced by ONS and is sponsored by AstraZeneca. ONS is solely responsible for the criteria, objectives, content, quality, and scientific integrity of its programs and publications. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Episode Notes This episode is not eligible for NCPD contact hours. ONS Podcast™ episodes: Episode 437: Precision Oncology: What We've Learned and What's Ahead Episode 406: Drug Resistance Biomarkers and Their Impact on Cancer Treatment Choices o Episode 389: Biomarker Testing for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer o Episode 373: Biomarker Testing in Prostate Cancer o Episode 169: How Biomarker Testing Drives the Use of Targeted Therapies ONS Voice articles: Case Study: Oncology Nurses' Role in Precision Care Coordination o Help Your Patients Understand Biomarker Resistance Testing o Key Patient Education Points for Biomarker Resistance Testing 9 Tips for Talking to Patients About Biomarker Testing Oncology Nurses Coordinate Precision Care, From Test Order to Treatment Preventing Errors in Germline Biomarker Testing Is Everyone's Responsibility ONS book: Oncology Nurse Navigation: Delivering Patient-Centered Care Across the Continuum (third edition) Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing article: Using Nurse Navigators to Improve Timeliness of Biomarker Testing for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer ONS Biomarker Guides™ OncoLink: Patient Guide to Tumor Markers National Cancer Institute: Biomarker Testing for Cancer Treatment National Human Genome Research Institute: Educational Resources 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 "The physician places an order for what kind of testing they want for their tumor type. And our role is to educate the patients about why we are doing this testing. What are the implications for their treatment? We place the orders for it. We ensure that we have tissue to do the testing on. Then we follow up to make sure that we get the results in a timely manner, follow up with the vendors that we're using to do the testing, and then ultimately present the results to the provider so that we can have that conversation with the patients." TS 1:50 "The biggest challenge is making sure we have the right tissue. If it's tissue that we've obtained in our institutions or a surgery that's happened here, that's not an issue. But if we're trying to get tissue from another institution, we're a little bit at the mercy of the sending institution and how quickly they can get the tissue sent, either directly to us or to a vendor that we're using to do biomarker testing. So that can cause delays. The vendors that we use for biomarker testing are very good at helping assist us in getting that tissue." TS 4:17 "These biomarkers have acronyms that sound like a different language for this population. So it's really important for us to explain what the marker means and how it helps us to guide their treatment and that it can be unique to their particular cancer type, and then explain to them about the different options that are related to that biomarker that we have found or that we want to use to make their treatment plan." TS 9:05 "It's common to be worried about, 'What will this cost me? Will my insurance cover it? Do I need another biopsy to do this testing?' Patients are scared to have to do that, so we try to alleviate some of those concerns. Most insurances are paying for this now, and oftentimes we don't need to send them to surgery for another biopsy." TS 10:40
