OCN Oncology Nursing Practice Exam 100 Multiple-Choice
Questions with Answers and Rationales
Practice Questions
1. Which personal change can lower cancer risk?
A. Assume inherited risk makes prevention useless
B. Replace screening with supplements
C. Avoid tobacco and obtain cessation support
D. Use tanning beds
Correct answer: C. Avoid tobacco and obtain cessation support
Rationale: Tobacco avoidance reduces carcinogen exposure. Supplements do not
replace appropriate screening, and tanning devices expose skin to harmful
ultraviolet radiation.
2. What is the main purpose of screening an asymptomatic eligible person?
A. Guarantee cancer never develops
B. Detect selected cancers or precancerous changes earlier
C. Replace evaluation of new symptoms
D. Confirm every cancer diagnosis
Correct answer: B. Detect selected cancers or precancerous changes earlier
Rationale: Screening aims at earlier detection. Abnormal results need evaluation,
and new concerning symptoms require assessment even after a negative screen.
3. A family has several early breast and ovarian cancers. What is appropriate?
A. Promise a pathogenic variant is present
B. Recommend identical surgery for every relative
C. Hereditary risk assessment and genetic counseling
D. Dismiss risk without symptoms
Correct answer: C. Hereditary risk assessment and genetic counseling
Rationale: A suggestive pedigree warrants individualized counseling. Testing
choices and implications should be explained without presuming results or
treatment decisions.
OCN Practice Exam | Page 1
,4. How does germline testing differ from tumor profiling?
A. Germline testing measures tumor size
B. Germline findings may have inherited implications
C. Every tumor alteration is inherited
D. Tumor testing excludes hereditary risk
Correct answer: B. Germline findings may have inherited implications
Rationale: Many tumor alterations are acquired. Germline findings can affect
relatives, and selected tumor results may prompt further hereditary assessment.
5. What does cancer stage primarily describe?
A. Severity of every adverse effect
B. Disease extent
C. Treatment preference
D. Cell differentiation alone
Correct answer: B. Disease extent
Rationale: Stage describes local, nodal, and distant extent as applicable. Grade
concerns microscopic characteristics and is a separate feature.
6. What does histologic grade generally describe?
A. Number of previous treatments
B. Insurance category
C. Microscopic abnormality or differentiation
D. Only the site of metastasis
Correct answer: C. Microscopic abnormality or differentiation
Rationale: Grade helps characterize tumor behavior from microscopic features. It is
not interchangeable with stage or the patient's treatment history.
7. What do negative surgical margins generally mean?
A. Recurrence is impossible
B. All later symptoms are benign
C. Surveillance can end
D. No tumor was found at the examined specimen edges
Correct answer: D. No tumor was found at the examined specimen edges
Rationale: Margin status refers to examined tissue edges. It does not alone prove
cure or eliminate the need for follow-up.
OCN Practice Exam | Page 2
, 8. How should a tumor marker be interpreted?
A. As a replacement for all pathology
B. As proof of cancer from one result
C. With diagnosis, treatment context, and trends
D. As exclusion of every cancer when normal
Correct answer: C. With diagnosis, treatment context, and trends
Rationale: Markers vary in sensitivity and specificity. Their meaning depends on
the marker and clinical context rather than a universal diagnostic rule.
9. What is neoadjuvant therapy?
A. Treatment before the principal local treatment
B. Treatment only after surgery
C. A diagnostic biopsy
D. Routine anesthesia
Correct answer: A. Treatment before the principal local treatment
Rationale: Neoadjuvant treatment precedes the main local therapy, often to reduce
disease burden. Adjuvant treatment follows primary local treatment.
10. What is the usual aim of adjuvant systemic therapy?
A. Replace diagnostic confirmation
B. Provide imaging sedation
C. Reduce recurrence risk after primary local treatment
D. Treat only infusion reactions
Correct answer: C. Reduce recurrence risk after primary local treatment
Rationale: Adjuvant therapy addresses residual microscopic disease risk. It differs
from diagnostic procedures and management of treatment adverse effects.
11. A trial participant wants to withdraw. What is appropriate?
A. State consent is irreversible
B. Explain voluntary participation and coordinate ongoing care
C. Let relatives cancel the request
D. Threaten loss of routine care
Correct answer: B. Explain voluntary participation and coordinate ongoing care
Rationale: Participation remains voluntary. The team explains safe withdrawal
procedures and ongoing care without coercion or abandonment.
OCN Practice Exam | Page 3
Questions with Answers and Rationales
Practice Questions
1. Which personal change can lower cancer risk?
A. Assume inherited risk makes prevention useless
B. Replace screening with supplements
C. Avoid tobacco and obtain cessation support
D. Use tanning beds
Correct answer: C. Avoid tobacco and obtain cessation support
Rationale: Tobacco avoidance reduces carcinogen exposure. Supplements do not
replace appropriate screening, and tanning devices expose skin to harmful
ultraviolet radiation.
2. What is the main purpose of screening an asymptomatic eligible person?
A. Guarantee cancer never develops
B. Detect selected cancers or precancerous changes earlier
C. Replace evaluation of new symptoms
D. Confirm every cancer diagnosis
Correct answer: B. Detect selected cancers or precancerous changes earlier
Rationale: Screening aims at earlier detection. Abnormal results need evaluation,
and new concerning symptoms require assessment even after a negative screen.
3. A family has several early breast and ovarian cancers. What is appropriate?
A. Promise a pathogenic variant is present
B. Recommend identical surgery for every relative
C. Hereditary risk assessment and genetic counseling
D. Dismiss risk without symptoms
Correct answer: C. Hereditary risk assessment and genetic counseling
Rationale: A suggestive pedigree warrants individualized counseling. Testing
choices and implications should be explained without presuming results or
treatment decisions.
OCN Practice Exam | Page 1
,4. How does germline testing differ from tumor profiling?
A. Germline testing measures tumor size
B. Germline findings may have inherited implications
C. Every tumor alteration is inherited
D. Tumor testing excludes hereditary risk
Correct answer: B. Germline findings may have inherited implications
Rationale: Many tumor alterations are acquired. Germline findings can affect
relatives, and selected tumor results may prompt further hereditary assessment.
5. What does cancer stage primarily describe?
A. Severity of every adverse effect
B. Disease extent
C. Treatment preference
D. Cell differentiation alone
Correct answer: B. Disease extent
Rationale: Stage describes local, nodal, and distant extent as applicable. Grade
concerns microscopic characteristics and is a separate feature.
6. What does histologic grade generally describe?
A. Number of previous treatments
B. Insurance category
C. Microscopic abnormality or differentiation
D. Only the site of metastasis
Correct answer: C. Microscopic abnormality or differentiation
Rationale: Grade helps characterize tumor behavior from microscopic features. It is
not interchangeable with stage or the patient's treatment history.
7. What do negative surgical margins generally mean?
A. Recurrence is impossible
B. All later symptoms are benign
C. Surveillance can end
D. No tumor was found at the examined specimen edges
Correct answer: D. No tumor was found at the examined specimen edges
Rationale: Margin status refers to examined tissue edges. It does not alone prove
cure or eliminate the need for follow-up.
OCN Practice Exam | Page 2
, 8. How should a tumor marker be interpreted?
A. As a replacement for all pathology
B. As proof of cancer from one result
C. With diagnosis, treatment context, and trends
D. As exclusion of every cancer when normal
Correct answer: C. With diagnosis, treatment context, and trends
Rationale: Markers vary in sensitivity and specificity. Their meaning depends on
the marker and clinical context rather than a universal diagnostic rule.
9. What is neoadjuvant therapy?
A. Treatment before the principal local treatment
B. Treatment only after surgery
C. A diagnostic biopsy
D. Routine anesthesia
Correct answer: A. Treatment before the principal local treatment
Rationale: Neoadjuvant treatment precedes the main local therapy, often to reduce
disease burden. Adjuvant treatment follows primary local treatment.
10. What is the usual aim of adjuvant systemic therapy?
A. Replace diagnostic confirmation
B. Provide imaging sedation
C. Reduce recurrence risk after primary local treatment
D. Treat only infusion reactions
Correct answer: C. Reduce recurrence risk after primary local treatment
Rationale: Adjuvant therapy addresses residual microscopic disease risk. It differs
from diagnostic procedures and management of treatment adverse effects.
11. A trial participant wants to withdraw. What is appropriate?
A. State consent is irreversible
B. Explain voluntary participation and coordinate ongoing care
C. Let relatives cancel the request
D. Threaten loss of routine care
Correct answer: B. Explain voluntary participation and coordinate ongoing care
Rationale: Participation remains voluntary. The team explains safe withdrawal
procedures and ongoing care without coercion or abandonment.
OCN Practice Exam | Page 3
