What to expect at your SACT appointment

Once your intravenous anticancer treatment has been prescribed by your team and you have had your bloods taken, your treatment will be clinically checked by a specialist cancer pharmacist. Here, the pharmacist will check that this is an appropriate regimen and the doses are safe for you, checking against our protocols, your demographics (height, weight and age) and your bloods (including liver and kidney function). Once all relevant checks have been done, your prescription is signed off and sent to our Cytolab to prepare.

The Cytolab is a sterile Aseptic unit, ensuring that your treatment is made in an environment that is free from contamination caused by harmful bacteria, viruses, or other microorganisms. Once treatments are made, they have a maximum of 7 days until expiry, though some treatments expire after just a few hours and so the Cytolab plan to ensure your treatment is made in a timely manner and does not expire and go to waste. A lot of cancer treatments are very expensive and so are only made once the Cytolab have confirmation that you are fit and well for your treatment.

On the day you attend for SACT, at City Hospital you will get a call to confirm that your treatment has been prepared. Do not arrive at the unit until you have received a call. At King’s Mill, chemotherapy runs on an appointment based system.

If you have an IV cannula inserted or if you have a PICC or a PORT catheter, this will be accessed.

The chemotherapy nurses will confirm and administer you treatment.