A pilot study of rebamipide-gargle for chemoradiotherapy-induced mucositis in oral cancer patients

Mucositis induced by chemoradiotherapy is one of the serious side effects of cancer therapy for oral cancer. It is caused by toxic free radicals (activated oxygen) produced by these therapeutic modalities. Rebamipide is a novel anti-ulcer drug which possesses various cytoprotective activities such as free radical scavenging, induction of prostaglandin-E and acceleration of ulcer healing. We report the results of a pilot study on rebamipide-gargle for inhibition of mucositis induced by chemo-radiotherapy. The present study was conducted on 13 patients (7 men and 6 women; age range 53-88) with oral cancer. They received radiotherapy (30-60 Gy) for the oro-facial area and chemotherapy (docetaxel: 11 cases; tegafur-uracil (UFT): 1 case; radiotherapy alone: 1 case) with simultaneous addition of 1% rebamipide-gargle treatment (10-15 times/day) to prevent the onset of mucositis. Informed consent was obtained prior to entry. Nine cases had grade 1-2 according to the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria, and 4 patients were classified as grade 3-4. No adverse reactions that could be caused by the rebamipide gargle were observed. These results suggested that rebamipide gargle could inhibit the occurrence of stomatitis induced by chemoradiotherapy. (author)