Oral toxicity management in head and neck cancer patients treated with chemotherapy and radiation: Xerostomia and trismus (Part 2). Literature review and consensus statement

Michela Buglione, Roberta Cavagnini, Federico Di Rosario, Marta Maddalo, Lucia Vassalli, Salvatore Grisanti, Stefano Salgarello, Ester Orlandi, Paolo Bossi, Alessandra Majorana, Giorgio Gastaldi, Alfredo Berruti, Fabio Trippa, Pietro Nicolai, Andrei Barasch, Elvio G. Russi, Judith Raber-Durlacher, Barbara Murphy, Stefano M. Magrini

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articleAcademicpeer-review

49 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Radiotherapy alone or in combination with chemotherapy and/or surgery is a well-known radical treatment for head and neck cancer patients. Nevertheless acute side effects (such as moist desquamation, skin erythema, loss of taste, mucositis etc.) and in particular late toxicities (osteoradionecrosis, xerostomia, trismus, radiation caries etc.) are often debilitating and underestimated. A multidisciplinary group of head and neck cancer specialists from Italy met in Milan with the aim of reaching a consensus on a clinical definition and management of these toxicities. The Delphi Appropriateness method was used for this consensus and external experts evaluated the conclusions. The paper contains 20 clusters of statements about the clinical definition and management of stomatological issues that reached consensus, and offers a review of the literature about these topics. The review was split into two parts: the first part dealt with dental pathologies and osteo-radionecrosis (10 clusters of statements), whereas this second part deals with trismus and xerostomia (10 clusters of statements)
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)47-54
JournalCritical Reviews in Oncology/Hematology
Volume102
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2016

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