The survival rates of many neoplasms have improved greatly in recent years, as a result of which we are often faced with a chronic, non-terminal disease. This situation poses a difficulty for the intensivist, since there is little information on the evolution and outcome of oncohematological patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). In addition, it is important to avoid pooling all cancer patients into one group, and thus to favor individualized treatment. Such treatment should be based on the creation of multidisciplinary teams with other specialties, such as Oncology and Hematology, and on subsequent monitoring in the ward with alert systems.

The critical oncohematological patient represents a challenge, a search, and a learning process for the intensivist: which patients have to be admitted to our Units? What is their evolution in the ICU? What is the prognosis of these patients once they are discharged from the ICU? Do we have specific mortality predictive models? What are the different treatments applied to patients with solid and hematological malignancies?

In this special supplement, articles of all formats published in 2024 and 2025 in Medicina Intensiva focused on the critical oncohematological patient have been compiled. The topics covered include clinical aspects such as thromboembolic complications or therapy involving the immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) group of drugs. In addition, the supplement includes papers that address very relevant topics such as the analysis of short- and long-term mortality in patients with solid malignancies, mortality predictive models, and the analysis of the reasons for rejecting cancer patient admission to the ICU.

This special supplement aims to provide practical and up-to-date information on the critically ill oncohematological patient for all professionals working in the ICU.

También disponible: El paciente crítico oncohematológico