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| LETTER TO EDITOR |
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| Year : 2020 | Volume
: 3
| Issue : 2 | Page : 327 |
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Authors' reply to Krishnamurthy, Bhosale et al., and Mohan et al.
Vijay Patil, Kumar Prabhash
Department of Medical Oncology, Tata Memorial Centre, HBNI, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
| Date of Submission | 13-May-2020 |
| Date of Decision | 14-May-2020 |
| Date of Acceptance | 22-May-2020 |
| Date of Web Publication | 19-Jun-2020 |
Correspondence Address:
Kumar Prabhash
Department of Medical Oncology, Tata Memorial Centre, HBNI, Mumbai - 400 012, Maharashtra
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
DOI: 10.4103/CRST.CRST_194_20
How to cite this article:
Patil V, Prabhash K. Authors' reply to Krishnamurthy, Bhosale et al., and Mohan et al. Cancer Res Stat Treat 2020;3:327 |
We thank Krishnamurthy,[1] Bhosale et al.,[2] and Mohan et al.[3] for taking a keen interest in our work.[4],[5] We agree with the comments and points raised by all the authors. Indeed, tweaking of guidelines is required in desperate times as evidence is hard to come by. We would be fortunate if the coronavirus disease pandemic ends by the time the evidence is gathered.
We agree with Mohan et al. that strategies for the management of patients with unknown primary tumors with cervical node metastasis were not discussed, and we will try to address this issue in a separate manuscript. The management of Epstein-Barr virus-positive nasopharyngeal cancer is at present similar to that of any other nasopharyngeal cancer.[5] The human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive oropharyngeal cancers, though on the rise and comprising the majority of patients in the Western setting, are a rare entity in India.[6],[7] The impact of HPV in patients with a long history of smoking is negligible. Hence, we did not address it separately. Further, currently apart from staging in the 8th edition, the management of oropharyngeal cancers is similar, irrespective of the HPV status.[6],[8]
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
| References | |  |
| 1. | Krishnamurthy A. Head-and-neck cancer management in the COVID-19 era: Practice recommendations. Cancer Res Stat Treat 2020;3:323-4.  [Full text] |
| 2. | Bhosale B, Katna R, Kalyani N. Adaptive approach toward the management of head-and-neck cancers during the COVID-19 crisis. Cancer Res Stat Treat 2020;3:324-5. [Full text] |
| 3. | Mohan T, Nambiar K. Maintaining a sense of optimism - Carl Rogers. Cancer Res Stat Treat 2020;3:325-6. [Full text] |
| 4. | Patil VM, Srikanth A, Noronha V, Joshi A, Dhumal S, Menon N, et al. The pattern of care in head-and-neck cancer: Comparison between before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cancer Res Stat Treat 2020;3 Suppl S1:7-12. |
| 5. | Patil V, Noronha V, Chaturvedi P, Talapatra K, Joshi A, Menon N, et al. COVID-19 and head and neck cancer treatment. Cancer Res Stat Treat 2020;3 Suppl S1:15-28. |
| 6. | Murthy V, Calcuttawala A, Chadha K, d'Cruz A, Krishnamurthy A, Mallick I, et al. Human papillomavirus in head and neck cancer in India: Current status and consensus recommendations. South Asian J Cancer 2017;6:93-8. [ PUBMED] [Full text] |
| 7. | Patil VM, Noronha V, Joshi A, Agarwal J, Ghosh-Laskar S, Budrukkar A, et al. A randomized phase 3 trial comparing nimotuzumab plus cisplatin chemoradiotherapy versus cisplatin chemoradiotherapy alone in locally advanced head and neck cancer. Cancer 2019;125:3184-97. |
| 8. | Noronha V, Patil VM, Joshi A, Mahimkar M, Patel U, Pandey MK, et al. Nimotuzumab-cisplatin-radiation versus cisplatin-radiation in HPV negative oropharyngeal cancer. Oncotarget 2020;11:399-408. |
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