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COVID-19 impact on the management of head and neck cancer: a French single-centre experience

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Abstract

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented pressure on medical care resources and access. The aim of this study was to evaluate the time between the cancer symptoms’ onset and the first ENT specialist consultation for patients with head and neck (HNC) and salivary glands cancers during the pandemic.

Methods

The outcome measures evaluated were time to diagnosis, and time to treatment onset, as well as the COVID-19 impact on the proportion of both cancer patient groups: asymptomatic and advanced stages. This is single-centre retrospective cross-sectional study, including 473 patients who were treated in our University Hospital for HNC and salivary gland cancers, 171 in the COVID-19 pandemic group (C +), and 302 patients in the pre-pandemic group (C−).

Results

There were no significant between-group differences in the delays between cancer symptoms’ onset and ENT consultation, diagnostic workup and initial treatment onset, respectively. There was a suggestive reduction in the number of diagnostic panendoscopy performed in the C + group (62%) compared to the C- group (73%) as well as a suggestive increase in the delay to adjuvant radiotherapy onset.

Conclusion

The median delay between cancer symptoms’ onset and ENT specialist consultation was not affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in our centre. Our results suggest an 11% decrease in diagnostic procedures performed independently, a decrease in the delay between the ENT consultation and surgical treatment onset and a 10-day increase in the delay to adjuvant radiotherapy onset.

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Data availability

Data available on request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr Clodic Coralie for the study project.

Funding

No funding was provided for this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ENT department, Brest Univeristy Hospital, Brest, France

    Maheo Clementine, Clement Camille, Archimede Swann, Marianowski Remi & Leclere Jean-Christophe

  2. INSERM, CIC 1412, Brest University Hospital, Brest, France

    Zarrin Alavi

Authors
  1. Maheo Clementine
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  2. Clement Camille
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  3. Archimede Swann
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  4. Zarrin Alavi
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  5. Marianowski Remi
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  6. Leclere Jean-Christophe
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Contributions

MC, CC and AS: for data collection, MR and LJC: for the statistical analysis, MC: for the writing process and ZA: for data interpretation and intellectual content editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maheo Clementine.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee (Brest Ethics Committee) (protocol number 29BRC21.0372). The research was conducted ethically, with all study procedures being performed in accordance with the requirements of the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki.

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Written informed consent was obtained from each participant/patient for study participation and data publication.

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Clementine, M., Camille, C., Swann, A. et al. COVID-19 impact on the management of head and neck cancer: a French single-centre experience. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 281, 873–882 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-023-08245-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-023-08245-w

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