Primary surgical versus primary nonsurgical therapy
For oral cavity cancers, the majority of physicians would not change
their current practice and still favored primary surgical therapy
(82.1% early T-stage and 79.1% locally advanced) . A small percentage
of respondents (7.5% early T-stage, 10.4% locally advanced) stated
that they would be more likely to refer for (chemo)radiotherapy but no
respondents were very likely to change their normal practice (Figure 1).
A majority of respondents were more likely to consider non-surgical
therapy for patients with early glottic cancers (62.1%) and
HPV-mediated oropharynx cancer (68.7%) during the COVID-19 pandemic as
compared to their normal practice. For locally advanced T4a laryngeal
cancers, a minority of respondents (25.7%) were willing to deviate from
the standard of care to offer non-surgical therapy.