What will happen prior to my first cycle of Systemic Anti-Cancer Treatment
Before you start your first treatment you will be given a New Patient Interview (NPI)
Your appointment will be over the phone and will take up to anything between 45mins to 1.5 hours
Please view the following links prior to your appointment with us.
- 2586v6_Having Systemic Anti-Cancer Treatment (SACT) in our department.pdf
- Traveling to your appointment and visiting the SACT unit
- Cancer Associated Thrombosis Video Diary
If you are scheduled for a telephone appointment for AM please expect a call from the nurse between 9-12 or a PM call will be between 1.30-5pm on your specified contact number.
Please note that appointment times can vary for telephone consultations however, the nurse will endeavour to call you as close to your original appointment time as possible. If you are unsure if we have the correct contact number please contact the chemo booking team on 0115 962 7984
Following your NPI
- You will be booked in for COVID swabs and blood tests
- Some patients will need an ECHO, MRI, blood tests, PICC lines. Your consultant will inform you if this will need to be completed before treatment starts.
- The consent form will be checked – if you have a copy please bring it along with you on the day of your treatment
- Do not forget to take any medications as advised at the NPI. Some treatments require you to take some medication before you first attend for chemotherapy.
- You will have an outpatient clinic review with the oncology team either, by telephone or face to face, a few days prior to your treatment
- You will have blood tests 2-3 days before chemotherapy. If you don’t hear anything this means that your treatment will go ahead and we will be calling you to attend for your treatment on the day (in the near future we will provide you with an appointment for your treatment and you can then attend at the appointment time). If there are any problems with your chemotherapy then you will get a call to explain what is happening and may be asked to have repeat blood tests if there are any problems with the results. The Pharmacy team will review your prescription to decide if your results are acceptable to proceed with your treatment. If you have blood tests too early these may not be helpful to the team to make decision.