Abstract
Management of patients with head and neck cancers (HNCs) is challenging for the Radiation Oncologist, especially in the COVID-19 era. The Italian Society of Radiotherapy and Clinical Oncology (AIRO) identified the need of practice recommendations on logistic issues, treatment delivery and healthcare personnel’s protection in a time of limited resources. A panel of 15 national experts on HNCs completed a modified Delphi process. A five-point Likert scale was used; the chosen cut-offs for strong agreement and agreement were 75% and 66%, respectively. Items were organized into two sections: (1) general recommendations (10 items) and (2) special recommendations (45 items), detailing a set of procedures to be applied to all specific phases of the Radiation Oncology workflow. The distribution of facilities across the country was as follows: 47% Northern, 33% Central and 20% Southern regions. There was agreement or strong agreement across the majority (93%) of proposed items including treatment strategies, use of personal protection devices, set-up modifications and follow-up re-scheduling. Guaranteeing treatment delivery for HNC patients is well-recognized in Radiation Oncology. Our recommendations provide a flexible tool for management both in the pandemic and post-pandemic phase of the COVID-19 outbreak. © 2020, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Journal | Med. Oncol. |
Volume | 37 |
Issue number | 10 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2020 |
Keywords
- Clinical practice recommendations
- COVID-19 pandemic
- Head and neck cancers
- Radiation oncology
- adult
- Article
- cancer radiotherapy
- clinical practice
- coronavirus disease 2019
- Delphi study
- female
- follow up
- head and neck cancer
- human
- Likert scale
- male
- middle aged
- normal human
- pandemic
- priority journal
- radiation oncologist
- workflow
- Betacoronavirus
- Coronavirus infection
- head and neck tumor
- Italy
- medical society
- oncology
- practice guideline
- procedures
- virus pneumonia
- Coronavirus Infections
- Head and Neck Neoplasms
- Humans
- Medical Oncology
- Pandemics
- Pneumonia, Viral
- Practice Guidelines as Topic
- Radiotherapy
- Societies, Medical