onkommon.com
Delivery
Vascular access & ports
A small procedure that decides how tolerable the next six months are.
Delivered at a partner unit
What it is
Repeated cannulation over a long chemotherapy course damages veins and makes every cycle harder. A chemoport or PICC line placed at the start turns a difficult hour into a five-minute connection.
In Indian practice ports are often deferred on cost grounds, then placed after the veins have already failed. The decision is best made before cycle one, with the cost stated.
When it is used
- Any chemotherapy course longer than three months
- Vesicant drugs that must not extravasate
- Poor peripheral veins
- Long-term infusional regimens
How the decision is made
- Port or PICC, and the trade-off between them for your regimen and your work.
- Timing, before the first cycle, not after the third failed cannula.
- Care and flushing, and who does it near your home.
Decided here; placed at a partner day-care or radiology unit; flushing and care through home care or here.
Who does what
What we handle, and what happens elsewhere
KPCIRC handles
- A port recommendation before cycle one, with the cost stated
- Referral for placement without delay
- Care instructions and a flushing schedule
- Infection surveillance and removal planning
Performed and billed elsewhere
- The placement procedure
- The device itself
- Redness, pain, swelling or fever around a port needs assessment the same day, port infections can become bloodstream infections quickly.
Questions to ask your own doctor
Take these with you. They work whether or not you are treated here.
- Do I need a port for this regimen?
- Port or PICC, and why?
- What does it cost, and does it save money overall?
- Who flushes it, and how often?
Support that goes with it
Where this is used
Cancers this commonly forms part of
Breast cancer
Including hormone-receptor positive, HER2-positive and triple-negative disease
Colorectal cancer
Colon and rectal cancer, bowel cancer
Lymphoma
Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma
Leukaemia
Acute and chronic leukaemias. ALL, AML, CLL, CML
Stomach cancer
Gastric cancer
Sarcoma & bone tumours
Soft-tissue sarcoma, osteosarcoma, Ewing sarcoma, GIST
Not sure this is the right option for you?
That is exactly what a second opinion is for. Bring what you have, we will tell you what is missing and what the alternatives actually are, in writing.