Chaired by Dr Jamie Weaver, Locum Consultant at The Christie, the study day ran onsite and online. Delegates joined from NHS and private healthcare settings, and the programme covered treatment toxicities, complications of advanced cancer and the emergency presentations that acute teams see in practice.
Dr Weaver opened the day with an update on cancer prognosis in the era of modern systemic anti-cancer therapy (SACT), and how changing outcomes influence decisions for the acutely unwell patient. Daniel Greenwood, Critical Care Advanced Practitioner, followed with a session on recognising the acutely deteriorating oncology patient.
Reflecting on his talk, he shared: "I spoke at the Acute Oncology Day today about the NEWS2 score and managing deteriorating patients." His hope for the session was that it would prompt debate about how teams spot deterioration, and what makes that different in oncology.
Dr Caroline Wilson, Acute Oncologist and Breast Consultant Medical Oncologist, covered acute oncology presentations in breast cancer patients. "I think we're all recognising that the complexity of the anti-cancer treatments we are giving to our patients is increasing year on year," she said.
Dr Wilson highlighted the growing number of frail older patients who also receive anti-cancer therapies. She added: "It's really important that all of our colleagues in acute care have the confidence, the education and the ability and the support from The Christie to deal with these patients, whether they come into The Christie main site here at Withington or whether they're going into any of our acute hospitals across Greater Manchester and Cheshire."
Prof Martin Vernon, Consultant Geriatrician, led a session on The Acutely Unwell Frail Oncology Patient. He valued the chance to focus on older people in an acute oncology setting. "We're going to see more and more older people receiving cancer treatment, which is a great thing, but also more and more people presenting with acute oncology presentations," he said. That makes a patient's prior frailty status important to know, along with how to manage frailty as a multidisciplinary team, with a focus on "recovery, dealing with immobility and dealing with delirium". Prof Vernon described the aim as: "hugely important to get people safely through the cancer care and back to their own homes."
The programme also included Prof Tim Cooksley, Consultant in Acute Medicine, with a session on life-threatening immunotherapy toxicities, and an update from Dr Weaver on immunotherapy toxicity management. Dr Bence Nagy, Locum Consultant, covered adverse events linked to antibody-drug conjugates, and Dr Phil Haji-Michael, Consultant Anaesthetist, presented on Hospital at Home. Laura Bradley, Lead Divisional Advanced Practitioner, looked at developments in ambulatory pathways in acute oncology. A case-based discussion with the acute oncology panel brought the day to a close.
Dr Weaver reflected on the day, describing acute oncology as an area where detailed knowledge matters for everyone involved: "It's important that we all generate that more specific, more detailed acute oncology knowledge. And all of us who see patients in that setting have a role to play in recognising toxicity, in supporting our patients with frailty, getting them up and running a bit faster."
"I think everybody at all the different levels of specialisation hopefully has taken something away valuable to change their practice today." he adds.
Thank you to everyone who joined us on the day, and to our speakers for such a practical programme.