Chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis: new approaches to prevention and management

Oral mucositis is a common and significant toxicity of cancer chemotherapy. It is under-reported and not well treated, particularly in patients that receive high-dose therapy with an autologous or allogenic stem cell transplant. Two recently published retrospective analyses of patient complaints following stem cell transplantation have identified oral mucositis as the worst toxicity reported by patients, and what is more important is that patients indicated that oncology healthcare team members do a poor job of managing and providing methods of symptom relief. Twenty percent of patients surveyed indicated they received no symptom relief at all.