Finding your practice home base

Immunotherapy-related side effects in the ED. What happens when our patients who are on immunotherapy end up in the emergency department (ED) with therapy-related symptoms? And what can the treating oncologist do to help the ED physician achieve the best possible outcome for the patient? I spoke to Dr Maura Sammon, an ED physician, about some of the more common of these side effects – lung, gastrointestinal, rash, and endocrine-related problems – and she describes in detail how physicians in the ED would triage and treat the patient. Dr Sammon also emphasizes the importance of communication: first, between the treating oncologist and patient, about the differences between chemotherapy and immunotherapy; and second, between the ED physician and the treating oncologist as soon as possible after the patient has presented to ensure a good outcome. The interview is part of The JCSO Interview series. It is jam-packed with useful, how-to information, and you can read a transcript of it on page e216 of this issue, or you can listen to it online.⁴

We round off the issue with a selection of Case Reports (pp. e200-e209), an original report on the characteristics of urgent palliative cancer care consultations encountered by radiation oncologists (p. e193), and a New Therapies feature, also by Dr de Lartigue, focusing on the rarity and complexities of sarcomas (p. e210).

Those are my dog-day-of-summer thoughts as we head toward another Labor Day and a new academic year. Since we are all online now, we encourage you to listen to my bimonthly podcast of each issue on our website at www.jcso-online.com, and of course, follow us on Twitter (@jcs_onc) and Instagram (@jcsoncology) and like us on Facebook.