Monitoring patients with head and neck cancer for flu-like symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tumori
; 108(3): 240-249, 2022 Jun.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1183475
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
To capture and monitor flu-like symptoms in relation to the clinical characteristics and the oncologic treatment of a large head and neck cancer (HNC) patient cohort during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.METHODS:
Patients were monitored through by 2 rounds of interviews. Clinical characteristics of patients with no symptoms (group 0) and of those reporting ⩾1 (group A), ⩾3 (group B), or ⩾5 symptoms (group C) were analyzed. Patients with ⩾1 symptom at both interviews were defined as group A2.RESULTS:
Five hundred patients with HNC were analyzed. A higher frequency of patients with the following characteristics was observed in group A vs group 0 active treatment (40% vs 24%, p = 0.0002), gastrostomy (6% vs 2%, p = 0.027), recent active treatment (48% vs 29%, p < 0.0001), and higher number of concomitant medications (p = 0.01). A lower median age was observed in group B vs group no-B (patients with fewer than three symptoms) (59 vs 63.55 years, p = 0.016) and in group A2 vs group no-A2 (patients without at least one symptom at both interviews) (56 vs 63 years, p = 0.021); patients in group B received more recent active treatment than those in group no-B and in group A2 vs those in group no-A2 (p = 0.024 and 0.043, respectively); patients in group B had a lower body mass index than those in group no-B (22.4 vs 23.93 kg/m2, p = 0.0066).CONCLUSIONS:
This work is based on patient-reported symptoms and signs independently of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) testing. In the future, these results might serve as a a benchmark for clinicians triaging and managing patients with HNC during infectious outbreaks involving flu-like symptoms.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
COVID-19
/
Head and Neck Neoplasms
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
/
Middle aged
Language:
English
Journal:
Tumori
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
03008916211007940
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