Oral mucositis: A challenging complication of radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and radiochemotherapy. Part 2: Diagnosis and management of mucositis

BACKGROUND: Oral mucositis is a common sequel of radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and radiochemotherapy in patients with cancer or patients requiring hemopoietic stem cell transplants. Mucositis has a direct and significant impact on the duration of disease remission and cure rates, because it is a treatment-limiting toxicity. Mucositis also affects survival because of the risk of infection and has a significant impact on quality of life and cost of care. METHODS: This article reviews publications on the diagnosis and management of oral mucositis accessible from a MEDLINE search using as key words mucositis, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, hemopoietic stem cell transplant, and oral. CONCLUSIONS: Conventional care of patients with mucositis is currently essentially palliative, with good oral hygiene, narcotic analgesics, and topical palliative mouth rinses.