Effectiveness of photobiomodulation in cancer patients with oral mucositis

Abstract

Mucositis occurs in more than 40% of chemotherapy-treated patients, significantly reducing their quality of life and increasing interventions for adequate analgesia and nutrition, as well as length of hospital stay. Many different interventions have been evaluated to reduce oral mucositis. Good results have recently been achieved with photobiomodulation (PBM), a technique that has practically no side effects. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of PBM in the treatment of oral mucositis in patients with leukemia or lymphoma at the Hospital Nossa Senhora da Conceicao (HNSC). Accordingly, an observational retrospective cohort study was conducted with 60 patients with leukemia or lymphoma, comparing time for clinical improvement of oral mucositis in the groups with and without PBM. We included patients of both sexes, 18 years or older, admitted to the HNSC Hematology/Oncology Department from January 2015 to December 2017. The mean time to resolution of oral mucositis in the PBM-treated group was 7.1 ± 2.57 days and 14.1 ± 6.89 days in the group without PBM (p < 0.001). PBM was shown to be more effective in reducing oral mucositis compared with the standard treatment protocol alone.