Cancer Treatment & Oncologic Emergencies

Chemotherapy nursing priorities include safe handling (chemotherapy agents are hazardous and require personal protective equipment per facility protocol), monitoring for extravasation when a vesicant drug is being infused (a vesicant that leaks into surrounding tissue can cause serious local tissue damage, so any burning, stinging, swelling, or lack of blood return at the IV site during administration must be treated as a possible extravasation and the infusion stopped immediately), and understanding the nadir — the point after treatment when blood counts (especially neutrophils) hit their lowest level, typically 7–14 days after a chemotherapy cycle, which is when infection risk and neutropenic precautions matter most. Radiation therapy has its own teaching focus: protecting treated skin (avoiding sun exposure, harsh soaps, lotions with alcohol or fragrance on the treatment site, and not removing any skin marking used to guide treatment) and monitoring for site-specific effects depending on what part of the body is being treated.