In 1974, 71 nurses attended a nursing session held at the American
Cancer Society/National Cancer Institute Conference on Advances in
Cancer Management. More than 250 interested nurses were identified that
year and a newsletter was initiated. The newsletter was the forerunner
of the Oncology Nursing Forum, the official journal of ONS.

The Society was officially incorporated in 1975 and held its first
Annual Congress in Toronto, Canada, in 1976. Since the establishment of
ONS, chapters have been formed to provide a network for education and
peer support at the local level. In 1988, ONS established Special
Interest Groups, a formal structure to facilitate national networking
of ONS members in identified subspecialty or interest areas. Also, ONS
became an ANA-accredited provider of continuing education in 1988.

ONS has four affiliated organizations. In 1981, the Oncology Nursing
Foundation was established to provide funding for cancer nursing
education, research, and nurse-directed cancer control projects. In
1984, the Oncology Nursing Certification Corporation was founded to
develop, administer, and evaluate a program for the certification of
oncology nurses. The Oncology Nursing Press, Inc. (now the ONS
Publishing Division), was established to publish the Oncology Nursing
Forum and other Society-sponsored publications. In 1996, Oncology
Education Services was established to provide educational consulting
services to corporations, institutions and individuals with an interest
in cancer care.

ONS is a member of the National Federation for Specialty Nursing
Organizations, the National Coalition for Cancer Research, and the
National Organizational Liaison Forum. ONS sits on the American College
of Surgeons' Commission on Cancer and was the first nursing
organization to become a member of the International Union Against
Cancer.

Today, ONS is the largest professional membership oncology association in the world.