Coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic telephone two-week-wait referrals in head and neck cancer - how safe were they?

Objective: During the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, ENT-UK recommended a move from face-to-face clinics to telephone appointments. This study reviewed the safety of telephone clinics for urgent two-week-wait cancer referrals.

Methods: Patients consulted in telephone clinics between April and November 2020 were identified from an electronic database.

Transoral robotic surgery and neck dissection alone for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: Influence of resection margins on oncological outcomes.

Objectives: This study reports oncological outcomes of transoral robotic surgery (TORS) and neck dissection (ND) alone for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and aims to analyse the influence of resection margins on local recurrence rates.

Materials And Methods: Fifty-one patients treated with curative intent for HNSCC, with TORS and ND alone between 2013 and 2019 at two tertiary centres were included in this observational multi-centre prospective cohort study. Oncological outcomes are reported on 47 patients for whom the aim was to treat with TORS and ND alone; this excluded four patients who were recommended adjuvant radiotherapy based on resective pathology but did not receive treatment.

Concurrent HPV-related oropharyngeal carcinoma in four couples.

Objectives: Typically, HPV-related cancers are sexually transmitted, however, the natural history of HPV-related oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) is unclear. HPV16 transmission has been reported previously between five couples with OPSCC. We report the clinico-pathological features of a further four couples with HPV-related OPSCC and compare them with the published cases.

Adult-onset laryngomalacia: case reports and review of management.

Laryngomalacia is a dynamic airway condition characterised by inward collapse of flaccid supraglottic structures during inspiration. Although the most common cause of stridor in the paediatric population, adult-onset laryngomalacia remains a rare entity and its management, challenging. Two cases of adult-onset laryngomalacia are reported.

The effect of comorbidity on quality of life during radiotherapy in head and neck cancer.

Objective: To identify the impact of comorbidity on quality of life during radiotherapy in head and neck cancer patients.

Study Design: Prospective assessment of quality of life and retrospective assessment of comorbidity.

Subjects And Methods: Patients' quality of life was assessed at the start and twice during radiation treatment with the University of Washington Quality of Life questionnaire.

Dissection of the submuscular recess (sublevel IIb) in squamous cell cancer of the upper aerodigestive tract: prospective study and systematic review of the literature.

Background: Selective neck dissection is commonly used to clear occult neck metastases in the N0 neck. The aim of this study was to identify the incidence of occult metastases in lymph nodes of sublevel IIb (submuscular recess; SMR) in upper aerodigestive tract squamous cell carcinoma in the setting of clinically and radiologically staged N0 necks and to perform a systematic review of the literature on the incidence of metastases in this setting.

Methods: We conducted a prospective study of 50 neck dissections and systematic review of the literature.