Primary surgical versus primary nonsurgical therapy
For oral cavity cancers, the majority of physicians would not change their current practice and still favored primary surgical therapy (82.1% early T-stage and 79.1% locally advanced) . A small percentage of respondents (7.5% early T-stage, 10.4% locally advanced) stated that they would be more likely to refer for (chemo)radiotherapy but no respondents were very likely to change their normal practice (Figure 1). A majority of respondents were more likely to consider non-surgical therapy for patients with early glottic cancers (62.1%) and HPV-mediated oropharynx cancer (68.7%) during the COVID-19 pandemic as compared to their normal practice. For locally advanced T4a laryngeal cancers, a minority of respondents (25.7%) were willing to deviate from the standard of care to offer non-surgical therapy.