Acute oncology assessment units so sick cancer patients bypass the emergency department
A cancer patient with a fever or severe sickness during treatment should be seen quickly by a team that knows chemotherapy, not wait hours in a general emergency room.
Cancer patients present to emergency departments frequently during treatment and are often admitted when same-day specialist assessment would have avoided it. Acute oncology services and dedicated assessment units (established across the UK and in some US centres) provide a direct line, rapid triage, and protocolised management for neutropenic fever, dehydration, and immune-related toxicity. The proposal is to make such a unit a required component of every treating centre.
- Fragmented care and guideline gaps · Patients fall between specialists, wait for referrals and often do not get the treatment guidelines say they should.
- Toxicity and quality of life are undervalued · Trials measure how long people live, not how they live. Side-effects are under-reported and under-treated.
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- Key paperBasch: asking patients to report symptoms online during chemotherapy improved survival
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- Key paperASCO 2021 guideline: how to recognise and manage the immune-related side effects of checkpoint inhibitors
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- CollectionESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines & MCBS
Shares Fragmented care and guideline gaps, Toxicity and quality of life are undervalued.