Management of chemo/radiation-induced oral mucositis in patients with head and neck cancer: A review of the current literature

Oropharyngeal mucositis is an important complication in non-surgical cancer treatments. It represents the major complication in radiotherapy of tumors located in head and neck areas. Many results have been published in order to define the best clinical protocol for prophylaxis or treatment of mucositis, but a consensus has not been attained yet. In this review, some recent topics in prophylaxis and treatment of mucositis related to radiation therapy are reconsidered using PUBMED and GOOGLE SCHOOLAR search engines from 2000 to 2015. In this review, more than 100 clinical studies have been selected and divided into the prophylactic or therapeutic uses of the evaluated treatment agents. The number of patients and kind of study design, the clinical features, prevalence, risk factors, pathogenesis, diagnosis, complication, prophylaxis and the treatment of mucositis were also specified. Nevertheless, it has not been truly achieved a consensus protocol of prophylaxis and treatment of oral mucositis.