Faculty
Jamile M. Shammo, MD, FASCP
Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pathology
Rush University Medical Center
Chicago, Illinois

Rekha R. Harting, MD
Fellow, Hematology and Oncology
Rush University Medical Center
Chicago, Illinois

Download Activity
Download a Portable Document Format (PDF) version of Special Report: Supportive Care Issues in Cancer

Instructions for Completion
To successfully complete this activity, you must read the entire newsletter, register, and submit your learning assessment and evaluation form online, correctly answering 70% of the learning assessment questions. If you provide your e-mail address, you will receive an immediate e-mail notification with a link to your printable statement of credit. If you do not provide your e-mail address, your statement of credit will be mailed to you within 4 weeks.

To register and submit your learning assessment and evaluation form online, click here.

Release and Termination Dates
Release: September 2007
CE available until: September 30, 2008

Supported by an educational grant from Amgen Inc.

Intended Audience
The intended audience for this educational activity is hematologists/oncologists and medical oncologists within academic and community settings, nurses who are members of ONS, and pharmacists, including members of the Hematology Oncology Pharmacy Association (HOPA), with a special interest in hematology or oncology.

Rationale and Purpose
More potent chemotherapeutic agents continue to be developed and used in conjunction with newer targeted agents in an aggressive effort to arrest cancer and prevent metastasis in patients diagnosed with various solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. Therefore, more focused supportive care is needed to improve the quality of patients’ lives as they subject themselves to intensive therapeutic regimens, which may result in serious complications such as severe myelosuppression and mucosal damage, and targeted therapies such as the EGFR inhibitors, which may be associated with dermatologic complications or infusion reactions that may further complicate therapy. The goal of this activity is to offer data supporting the use of agents in the care of patients undergoing chemotherapy so that they do not experience delays in therapy, a reduction in chemotherapy dose intensity, or side effects that negatively affect their quality of life.

The purpose in providing this continuing education newsletter is to summarize and highlight information presented at the ASCO Annual Meeting in an enduring format to an expanded target audience of physicians, nurses, and pharmacists who treat patients receiving both cytotoxic chemotherapy and targeted agents. Clinicians need to know the latest treatment approaches in supportive care. The provision of this continuing education newsletter will meet an important educational need of this audience.

Learning Objectives

After participating in this activity, health care professionals should be better able to

• Describe and evaluate recent clinical studies that address the development and value of risk assessment models for chemotherapy-induced anemia and neutropenia
• Describe and assess the value of early initiation of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) in relation to safety and efficacy in various treatment settings
• Review and evaluate the role of supplemental iron with ESAs
• Explain and evaluate strategies for the prophylaxis and treatment of radiation-induced oral mucositis

Continuing Education
To access the learning assessment and evaluation form online click here. Participants who successfully complete this activity (including scoring at least 70% on the learning assessment and completing and submitting the evaluation form) will be issued a statement of credit via e-mail or US mail within 4 weeks.

Nurses This activity for 1.25 contact hours is provided by the Meniscus Educational Institute. The Meniscus Educational Institute is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Accreditation refers to recognition of educational activities only and does not imply approval or endorsement of any product by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider No. 13164, for 1.25 contact hours.

Pharmacists This educational activity is sponsored by the Meniscus Educational Institute. The Meniscus Educational Institute is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) as a provider of continuing pharmacy education. The ACPE Universal Program Number assigned to this program, for 1 contact hour (.10 CEU), is 429-000-07-004-H04.

Privacy Policy
Meniscus Educational Institute is committed to protecting the privacy of users of our Web site. Please click here to review Meniscus Educational Institute's privacy policy.