Controversial Issues in the Management of Head and Neck Cancer: A Swiss Multidisciplinary and Multi-Institutional Patterns of Care Study
- ISBN-10
- 2889635449
- ISBN-13
- 9782889635443
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2020-02-26
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Authors
- Olgun Elicin, Marco Siano, Christian Simon
Description
The heterogeneity in the practice of diagnosis and treatment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is known and expected to be inversely correlated with the level of evidence on a given topic. Literature on various aspects of management of HNSCC were previously published, but were usually restricted within narrow foci. Due to the lack of a similar comprehensive work published so far, the Head and Neck Cancer Working Group of Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research (SAKK) decided to perform a survey covering the whole spectrum of controversial topics concerning the diagnosis and the treatment of HNSCC among its member institutions. This survey was designed to discuss current diagnostic and treatment strategies for HNSCC of all localizations, and to find out probable differences and level of consensus between the participating academic institutions by means of a questionnaire-based pattern of care study. The items in the survey was generated with a scored voting system by inclusion of all involved centers, and divided into four sections, each of them not exceeding twenty questions: head and neck surgery, radiation oncology, medical oncology and biomarkers. Surely, the topics and questions were intentionally chosen from controversial areas. Nonetheless, the lack of major consensus in most queried areas provide an insight to head and neck oncologist in terms of the scope of heterogeneity in their practice. Although none of the participated centers being plainly wrong, it is still disturbing to see, that a patient may be treated with quite discrepant diagnostic and treatment concepts even in a relatively small country adhering to up to date evidence based medicine. We believe that this work will serve the head and neck oncologists to be aware of their discrepancies and to stimulate discussion toward standardization of practice and prioritize topics of future clinical research.
