A patient who has just been diagnosed with breast cancer asks why her treatment plan does not include the new drug Herceptin that she has read about. What is the nurse's best response?
a. Your immune system is too weak to tolerate Herceptin.
b. This drug is experimental and dangerous for you to take before trying other therapies.
c. Your breast cancer does not have the protein that this drug works on, so you would not benefit from this therapy.
d. You are young and can better tolerate the standard therapies for breast cancer that have been proven effective but have strong side effects.
Question 2
Which chemotherapy problem, experienced by a patient after the first round of chemotherapy, does the nurse report to the prescriber to reduce the chemotherapy dose or delay the next treat-ment?
a. Productive cough and fever
b. Loss of scalp and body hair
c. Moderate nausea and vomiting
d. Fatigue and increased sleep time
Nurses possess a wide variety of experiences which they take into each patient encounter.
Quadrants of the Left Breast
Illustration showing how the primary breast tumor metastasized through the lymphatic and blood vesse
Position of patient to assess jugular vein distention
A cervical cancer cell