Models of care for cancer emergencies

Cancer care has become increasingly specialized and advances in treatment have resulted in a larger proportion of cancer patients receiving treatment as outpatients. Although there are many cancer centers throughout the world that are dedicated solely to the care of cancer patients, there are few centers that specialize in the emergent care of these patients. In this chapter, we compare different models of care for oncologic emergencies, as well as common treatment needs and challenges of treating this population. The models range from emergency departments at large, dedicated cancer centers (the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA), to a cancer-dedicated emergency department alongside a general emergency department, with some shared resources (Asan Medical Center, Korea), to a distributed model in which an oncology service provides support at general acute care facilities, often rural (Merseyside and Cheshire Cancer Network, England). We also include the cancer emergency department at the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (USA), which is still in its planning phase, to illustrate planning considerations involved in providing acute care to patients with cancer.