Episode 429: Radiation Site-Specific Side Effects: CNS Cancers

"They're really worried that radiation is going to be painful. So they come in for that first day of treatment very anxious. With our patients with brain cancer, we're using the masks on the table, and those masks are very tight and hold their heads very, very still. So they'll be very worried about being claustrophobic. We may start out the first day or two with a little bit of [lorazepam]. And they'll come to me and they'll say, 'This really hasn't been as bad as I thought it was going to be,'" ONS member Catherine McCluskey, BSN, RN, OCN®, ROCN™, radiation oncology staff nurse at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist in Winston-Salem, NC, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, who was the manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS at the time of the recording, during a conversation about radiation side effects in central nervous system (CNS) cancers.

Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod

Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0

Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by August 21, 2027. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.

Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to the side effects of radiation to treat CNS cancer.

Episode Notes

Complete this evaluation for free NCPD.  ONS Podcast™ episodes: Radiation Site-Specific Side Effects series Episode 306: Cancer Symptom Management Basics: CNS Toxicities ONS Voice articles: Augmented Reality Simulations Reduce Patient Anxiety by Teaching Them About Radiation Therapy CNS Survivorship Needs More Research, Funding, and Training, Expert Panel Says Here's What the Updated CTCAE Version 6.0 Means for Oncology Nurses Highly Localized, Precision Radiation Therapies Require Nurses to Drive Care Coordination, Patient Education Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Shows Promise for Certain Radiation Side Effects ONS book: Manual for Radiation Oncology Nursing Practice and Education (fifth edition) ONS courses: Indications of Targeted Radiotherapy to the Brain and Spine: 2025 ONS Congress® Session ONS ROCN™ Certification Review™ ONS/ONCC® Radiation Therapy Certificate™ Supporting Radiation Side Effect Management Through ONS Evidence-Based Resources: 2025 ONS Congress® Session Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing articles: Implementing a Standardized Educational Tool for Patients With Brain Tumors Undergoing Concurrent Temozolomide and Radiation Therapy Radiation Necrosis: A Differential Diagnosis Dilemma The Neurocognitive Late Effects of Cranial Radiation Therapy: The Often-Unrecognized Outcomes Oncology Nursing Forum article: Symptom Clusters in Patients With Brain Tumors Undergoing Proton Beam Therapy ONS Huddle Cards: External Beam Radiation Proton Therapy Proton Therapy Radiation ONS Guidelines™ and Symptom Management Resources Cognitive impairment Fatigue Mucositis Radiodermatitis ONCC resources: Big List of CE Radiation Oncology Certified Nurse (ROCN™) Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE v6.0) Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9 and PHQ-2) To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities.

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To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org.

Highlights From This Episode

"With primary tumors—glioblastomas, astrocytoma, all of those types of cancerous primary CNS tumors, the tumors are not very well-defined. They have little tentacles that kind of go out, so doing something like Gamma Knife, which is very precise, is not as effective as an external beam bec