ONS’s milestone 50th Annual ONS Congress, held from April 9–13, 2025, in Denver, CO, will bring together thousands of oncology nurses and providers to celebrate five decades of progress in cancer care. As the signature oncology nursing conference, ONS Congress offers a diverse array of educational sessions on the latest research, clinical practices, and advancements in the field.

ONS courses offer nurses intense training on critical oncology-related information, which may lead to mental fatigue without a break. To optimize learning and support course takers’ well-being, ONS developed immersive wellness breaks that provide an opportunity for nurses to shift their attention and allow their brains to rest, thereby improving the ability to refocus on the content and enhance their learning experience. The immersive wellness breaks consist of short mindfulness activities such as nature videos, breathing exercises, and reminders to get up and move. 

More than 30% of adults younger than age 50 believe that pancreatic cancer occurs only in older adults and more than 50% can’t name the early signs and symptoms of the disease, according to the results of a new survey conducted by researchers at The Ohio State University. The researchers called the knowledge gap “dangerous.”

Since 2017, eight drugs or regimens have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for six distinct tumor-agnostic indications. By targeting genomic alterations that drive cancer growth and progression across multiple tumor types, tumor-agnostic cancer therapies advance beyond the cancer’s tissue of origen and histology. In an article published in the December 2024 issue of the Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, ONS member Danielle M. Fournier, DNP, APRN, AGPCNP-BC®, AOCNP®, gave oncology nurses an overview of the key considerations for the currently approved therapies and a glimpse at what’s in store for the very near future.

On January 17, 2025, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved datopotamab deruxtecan-dlnk (Datroway^®), a TROP2-directed antibody and topoisomerase inhibitor conjugate, for adult patients with unresectable or metastatic, hormone receptor (HR)-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative (IHC 0, IHC1+, or IHC2+/ISH-) breast cancer who have received prior endocrine-based therapy and chemotherapy for unresectable or metastatic disease.

From nbcnews.com: U.S. consumers will no longer have medical debt appear on their credit reports under a new rule the Biden administration finalized Tuesday. The change, which administration officials had proposed over the summer and is set to take effect in March, means some $49 billion in medical bills will be struck from the credit reports of about 15 million Americans. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said lenders would also be prohibited from using medical information in their lending decisions.

By 2050, cancer incidence and death rates are expected to triple in countries with a low Human Development Index, researchers reported in findings from a cross-sectional study of 2022 diagnosis and death rates in 36 cancer types across 185 countries and territories. Overall, cancer cases and deaths are expected to rise by 77% and 90% in 2050, the researchers wrote in JAMA Network Open.

From WashingtonPost.com: Cervical cancer deaths among individuals younger than 25 have plummeted in recent years, the likely result of vaccinating adolescents against human papillomavirus, or HPV, high-risk strains of which cause the cancer, researchers said. “This is a huge public-health success story,” said Ashish Deshmukh, co-leader of the cancer prevention and control research program at the Medical University of South Carolina’s Hollings Cancer Center and senior author of research recently published in JAMA Network. “Vaccination is the only explanation for this startling and substantial decline.” 

Life can feel valuable and finite after a cancer diagnosis. In an instant, plans change, and questions, needs, and challenges arise. Without the right answers and support, the diagnosis can be daunting, frustrating, and overwhelming.

Since 1975, the United States has avoided nearly 6 million deaths from five common cancer types—80% of which were because of advancements in prevention and screening strategies, according to study results from National Cancer Institute (NCI) researchers that were published in JAMA Oncology.