Prevalence of Oral Manifestations in Individuals Undergoing Chemotherapy: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of oral manifestations among patients undergoing chemotherapy.

A systematic review was conducted and followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. The review was registered in PROSPERO, under registration number CRD42024564007. Two independent reviewers conducted searches in the PubMed, Embase, and Scopus databases as well as Google Scholar for grey literature in July 2024. Inclusion criteria comprised cross-sectional studies that evaluated oral manifestations associated with chemotherapy. Risk of bias was assessed using JBI Critical Appraisal tool for cross-sectional studies. Synthesis of the results was performed using the MedCalc software program.

Twenty-four cross-sectional studies were included. After the analysis of the results, the pooled prevalence was estimated for the following oral manifestations: oral mucositis (42.15%); xerostomia (39.92%); dysgeusia (49.62%); candidiasis (24.11%); oral herpes (7.98%); oral ulcer (31.40%); gingivitis (56.15%); dysphagia (28.28%); halitosis (19.55%); oral pain (22.78%).

The evidence suggests that the prevalence oral manifestations is high in patients undergoing chemotherapy. However, the results should be interpreted with caution due to the considerable heterogeneity among the studies.