Introduction
Severe acute respiratory distress syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2),
which causes the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has had an
unprecedented effect on the world and the medical community. The World
Health Organization declared it a pandemic on March 11, 2019, and, as of
April 25, 2020, more than 2.8 million people have been infected,
resulting in over 200,000 deaths worldwide.1-2COVID-19 has already had extraordinary effects on how multidisciplinary
head and neck cancer (HNC) teams provide HNC patients in initial
hotspots such as Wuhan, China and in Italy as well as the United States
and throughout the world.3-5 Following previous
regional disasters such as Hurricane Katrina in 2008, there was an
increase in incidence of patients presenting with advanced head and neck
cancers.6 We should be prepared for a similar surge in
this patient population with the current pandemic after we pass the
COVID-19 incidence peak. Although estimates of peak hospital resource
use of the COVID-19 surge vary between models and geographic locations,
estimates from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME)
estimate that the national peak was on April 17, 2020. However,
estimated peaks from all states currently range from April 4, 2020 to
May 14, 2020 with the possibility of another surge in the coming
months.7 The peak time of deaths from COVID-19 are
roughly similar but include an even broader range of dates.
Multidisciplinary HNC teams need to be proactive in anticipating and
preparing for the potential influx of HNC patients as public health
guidelines shift from social distancing to containment strategies. By
implementing tactics to mitigate and ultimately deal with this surge,
HNC patients can receive quality and prompt care without increased
adverse outcomes.