The JCSO Interview: Dr. Maura Sammon

When cancer patients present to the emergency department with symptoms and say they’re being treated for cancer, it’s crucial for the attending physician to ascertain at the outset if the treatment is with chemotherapy or immunotherapy so that the appropriate symptom treatment can be initiated as early as possible. The key here is communication: first, between the oncologist and patient, so that the patient is aware of these nuances in advance of an emergency, and second, between the ED physician and the treating oncologist soon after the patient has presented and undergone an initial assessment. In this interview, Dr David Henry and Dr Maura Sammon discuss some of the most common immunotherapy-related side effects – lung, gastrointestinal, rash, and endocrine-related problems – and Dr Sammon describes in detail how physicians in the ED would triage and treat the patient.