Thyroid cancer clinicians' views and experiences of delayed treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic: an international cross-sectional survey

In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic. Since then, countries worldwide have taken unprecedented measures in response to the outbreak and its demand on healthcare resources. One strategy has been delaying non‐urgent surgery—one example being surgery for low‐risk thyroid cancer. However, there are currently no data to inform how clinicians discuss and manage delayed treatment due to reasons beyond their own or the patients' control or decision‐making. During the pandemic, patients with lower risk thyroid cancer may have had to ‘sit’ with knowledge of their cancer for a prolonged period of time while awaiting surgery. For patients with higher risk cancers, surgical treatments including completion thyroidectomy, radioactive iodine (RAI) therapy and use of systemic therapies may also have been delayed. The aim of this study was to quantitatively examine the views and experiences of clinicians managing patients with thyroid cancer before and during the COVID‐19 pandemic.