| Literature DB >> 32780426 |
John R de Almeida1,2, Christopher W Noel1,2, David Forner1,2,3, Han Zhang4, Anthony C Nichols5, Marc A Cohen6, Richard J Wong6, Caitlin McMullen7, Evan M Graboyes8, Vasu Divi9, Andrew G Shuman10, Andrew J Rosko10, Carol M Lewis11, Ehab Y Hanna11, Jeffrey Myers11, Vinidh Paleri12, Brett Miles13, Eric Genden13, Antoine Eskander14, Danny J Enepekides14, Kevin M Higgins14, Dale Brown1, Douglas B Chepeha1, Ian J Witterick15, Patrick J Gullane1, Jonathan C Irish1, Eric Monteiro15, David P Goldstein1, Ralph Gilbert1.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: In the wake of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, access to surgical care for patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) is limited and unpredictable. Determining which patients should be prioritized is inherently subjective and difficult to assess. The authors have proposed an algorithm to fairly and consistently triage patients and mitigate the risk of adverse outcomes.Entities:
Keywords: coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); delivery of health care; head and neck cancer; health priorities; patient selection; surgical procedures; waiting lists
Mesh:
Year: 2020 PMID: 32780426 PMCID: PMC7436362 DOI: 10.1002/cncr.33114
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Cancer ISSN: 0008-543X Impact factor: 6.860
Prioritization Indications and Scores After 4 Rounds of Ranking
| Low‐Priority Factors | Intermediate‐Priority Factors | High‐Priority Factors | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| −4 | −3 | −2 | −1 | 0 | +1 | +2 | +3 | +4 |
| Alternative therapy available | Poor performance status (ie, ECOG PS 3, 4) | Wait time exceeded <2 wk for low‐grade histology | Wait time not exceeded but approaching for high‐grade histology | Laryngeal cancer requiring partial laryngeal surgery | Wait time exceeded by <2 wk for high‐grade histology | Wait time exceeded by ≥2 wk for high‐grade histology | ||
| Very severe comorbidity (eg noncancer survival <50% at 1 y) | Wait time not exceed but approached in 1 wk for low‐grade histology | Wait time exceeded for low‐grade histology (≥2 wk) | Hypopharyngeal cancer requiring total laryngopharyngectomy | Advanced lymph node disease (eg, N3 or macroscopic ENE) | Clinical or imaging progression (ie, advancing stage) | |||
| Low‐grade parotid malignancy | Oral cavity cancer with soft‐tissue resection | Nasal or paranasal sinus cancer requiring open anterior craniofacial surgical resection | Symptomatic disease progression while on wait list | Potential significant functional morbidity or inoperability if tumor growth | ||||
| Thyroid cancer with lymph node disease | Oral cavity cancer with bone resection | Stage III to IV disease (AJCC 8th edition) | Previous RT | Potential moderate functional or cosmetic impairment if tumor growth | ||||
| Oral cavity cancer requiring near‐total or total glossectomy | Length of surgery <4 h | Thyroid cancer with tracheal invasion | ||||||
| Oropharyngeal cancer with transoral surgery | Hospital length of stay 1‐3 d | |||||||
| Oropharyngeal cancer with mandibulotomy | No intensive care unit or step‐down unit | |||||||
| Laryngeal cancer requiring total laryngectomy | ||||||||
| Hypopharyngeal cancer with total laryngectomy and partial pharyngectomy | ||||||||
| Nasopharyngeal cancer requiring endoscopic resection | ||||||||
| Nasopharyngeal cancer requiring maxillotomy | ||||||||
| Nasal or paranasal sinus cancer requiring endoscopic resection | ||||||||
| Advanced skin cancer requiring skin resection and regional flap reconstruction | ||||||||
| Advanced skin cancer requiring free‐flap reconstruction | ||||||||
| High‐grade parotid malignancy | ||||||||
| Temporal bone malignancy | ||||||||
| Head and neck cancer with no lymph node disease | ||||||||
| Head and neck caner with limited lymph node disease | ||||||||
| Stage I to II | ||||||||
| Age <50 y | ||||||||
| Age 50‐64 y | ||||||||
| Age 65‐84 y | ||||||||
| Age ≥85 y | ||||||||
| ECOG PS 0, 1 | ||||||||
| ECOG PS 2 | ||||||||
| Patient with advanced disease and adjuvant RT is an option | ||||||||
| Length of surgery 4‐8 h | ||||||||
| Length of surgery >8 h | ||||||||
| Hospital length of stay 4‐7 d | ||||||||
| Hospital length of stay >7 d | ||||||||
| Free flap required | ||||||||
| Intensive care unit or step‐down unit required | ||||||||
| No free flap required | ||||||||
| No tracheostomy tube required | ||||||||
Abbreviations: ECOG PS, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status; ENE, extranodal extension; RT, radiotherapy.
Agreement Between Experts During the Delphi Process
| Round | Ordinal Scale | LCL | UCL | Per Priority Group | LCL | UCL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0.38 | 0.34 | 0.41 | 0.34 | 0.31 | 0.37 |
| 2 | 0.27 | 0.24 | 0.31 | 0.35 | 0.32 | 0.38 |
| 3 | 0.40 | 0.37 | 0.43 | 0.35 | 0.32 | 0.38 |
| 4 | 0.34 | 0.30 | 0.37 | 0.32 | 0.28 | 0.35 |
Abbreviations: LCL, lower 95% confidence limit; UCL, upper 95% confidence limit.
There were 11 raters and agreement was measured using the Krippendorff alpha.
“Ordinal scale” refers to the scale of 0 to 9 used to rate priority of surgery and “Per Priority Group” refers to the low‐priority, medium‐priority, and high‐priority groups related to the scoring scale.
Figure 1The Surgical Prioritization and Ranking Tool and Navigation Aid for Head and Neck Cancer (SPARTAN‐HN) scoring system. ECOG indicates Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group; ENE, extranodal extension.
Figure 2External validation rank results. A total of 14 experts were asked to rate the 12 scenarios provided (shown on the x‐axis) and the results were compared with the rank generated by models 1 and 2 (shown on the y‐axis). Green shading reflects high priority (ranked 1‐4), yellow shading indicates medium priority (ranked 5‐8), and red shading indicates low priority (ranked 9‐12). Asterisk denotes ties from the algorithm. SPARTAN‐HN indicates Surgical Prioritization and Ranking Tool and Navigation Aid for Head and Neck Cancer.