Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: Mucositis [bucal Mucous inflamation] is the most common complication resulting from the radiotherapy in tumors of head and neck. These malignancies are often curable through radiotherapy. This complication, however, may impair the treatment process and cause malnutrition. So far no medicine has been Known to prevent this complication. Vitamin E is a stabilizer of cell membrane and is also used in mucositis treatment. The survey of oral vitamin E effect on mucositis prophylaxis in radiotherapy of head and neck malignancies.

Materials and Methods: Seventy patients afflicted with head and neck malignancies referring to Imam Khomeini Hospital were randomly divided into 2groups, two of whom died during treatment process. The first group (The case group consisting of 34 patients) Consumed oral vitamin E 200 mg daily for seven days. The second group (The control group) did not use any medicine at all. The two group underwent radiotherapy. They were compared and contrasted as to mucositis severity and dysphagia during treatment.

Results: In the first group, since the fourth week up to the end of the treatment, there was a lower frequency and grade of mucositis in contrast with the control group. In the fourth week, the grade two mucositis in the first group (Case group) was 20.6% and 47.5% in the control group the difference was statistically significant (P=0.024). There was also a lower frequency and grade of dysphagia in the case group since the fourth week versus the control group. In the fourth week, moderate dysphagia was 29.4% in the case group and 55.9% in the control group. The difference was statistically significant (P=0.023).

Conclusion: Oral vitamin E has Proved to be effective in the Prophylaxis of Moderate and severe mucositis and dysphagia resulting from radiotherapy. It is advisable to conduct more research with more cases, lengthier duration and heavier doses.

Background: Chemo-radiotherapy-induced oral mucositis represents a therapeutic challenge frequently encountered in cancer patients. This side effect causes significant morbidity and may delay or interruption of treatment plan, cyclo-oxygenase 2 (COX2) is an inducible enzyme primarily expressed in inflamed and tumoral tissues. COX-2 inhibitors have shown promise to reduce chemoradiation induce toxicities. We conducted a phase III, randomized double blind clinical trial to evaluate the toxicity and efficacy of celecoxib, a selective COX2 inhibitor, administered concurrently with chemoradiation for locally advanced head and neck cancer. Here in we report the first report about the role of COX-2 inhibitor in acute toxicicities.

Methods: Patients with stage III/IV (locally advance) head and neck carcinoma who referred to department of radiation-oncology were eligible. Patients were treated with chemotherapy with cisplatin concurrently with radiation (60-70Gy). Celecoxib (100mg qid) was started at the first day of radiotherapy and was given for a total of 8 weeks. Acute toxicities were evaluated every week by WHO scale.

Results: One hundred twenty two patients were enrolled into the study, (61 patients for each group). In repeated mesurment analysis of variance there is a significant difference in the time of onset of grade II acute toxicities between the two groups The mucositis, dysphagia, epidermitis and oral pain score changed significantly over the typical five weeks in two groups but these changes were more sever in placebo group (p=0.0001). In the analysis of the overall changes in the following laboratory parame-ters: WBC, hemoglobin and platelet showed that these parameters decreased over time in both groups without a significant difference between groups.

Conclusion: The results of these study showed that the use of a COX-2 inhibitor (celecoxib) that is a safe and inexpensive drug may reduce acute toxicities of chemoradiation specially mucositis in head and neck carcinoma.