Cancer Care, Explained.

Straightforward and easy to understand, created specifically for patients and caregivers. Designed between a 5^th and 8^th grade reading level to explain how the therapy is given, how it works, the treatment schedule, and important precautions.

The NCODA PES Committee, comprised of nurses, pharmacists, and advanced practice providers from across the country, reviews educational content on clinical changes and updates annually as part of our routine process. In addition, we actively monitor and incorporate major and urgent updates to ensure that our education remains as current and relevant as possible.

Yes. Healthcare providers are permitted to print, copy, and distribute Patient Education Sheets directly to patients and caregivers, and you may also direct patients to the PES website. However, commercial reproduction, rebranding, reposting on other websites, or integration into electronic systems requires prior permission. For questions about use beyond direct patient education, please email: patienteducationsheets@ncoda.org 

The PES webpage will feature a “Recently Published Patient Education Sheets” section, highlighting the latest additions and updates so you can quickly identify new content. 

Patient Education Sheets are written in clear, patient-friendly language to make complex medical information easier to understand. They are primarily designed as a supplemental tool for healthcare providers and pharmacists to use during patient counseling sessions. While the primary intent is to support provider-led education, patients and caregivers can also review the sheets on their own to reinforce what was discussed during their appointments. 

Direct linking or integration of Patient Education Sheets into an EHR is not permitted without prior approval. If your practice is interested in this use, please contact patienteducationsheets@ncoda.org to request permission and discuss licensing options.

To ensure optimal print quality for our Patient Education Sheets, please follow these best practices for printing in landscape mode. Before printing, adjust your printer settings to ‘Landscape’ orientation; this will prevent any part of the document from being cut off and maintain the readability of the text. Avoid printing in ‘Portrait’ mode, as this will result in truncation of the content and significantly reduced font size, making it difficult to read. If you encounter issues, checking your printer’s user guide for additional landscape printing instructions may be beneficial. If the landscape feature is not available on your printer, please work with your IT Department for support.

To determine how long patients need to follow safety precautions when handling body fluids after receiving hazardous drugs, we conducted a comprehensive literature review. Our search focused on available studies describing the pharmacokinetics of these drugs — particularly their half-lives and the percentage of active drug or metabolites excreted in urine and feces.

Unfortunately, data in this area is limited. For many agents, it remains unclear when the drug or its metabolites are cleared from the body. Additionally, there is no established threshold for the minimum amount of drug or its metabolite in body fluids that poses a hazard. Because of these data gaps, we based our recommendations on the best available evidence and reasonable assumptions to estimate an appropriate timeframe for maintaining safety precautions.

Call to Action:
As drug manufacturers are now required to provide guidance on how long patients should wait before becoming pregnant or breastfeeding after treatment, we believe they should also provide clear recommendations on safety precautions related to body fluid handling after patients receive hazardous drugs. Establishing evidence-based, standardized guidelines would help ensure patients and caregivers know exactly how long these safety measures should remain in place to protect everyone’s health.