Major clinical approaches of dental treatment in cancer patients: a systematic review

Abstract

Introduction: According to the National Cancer Institute, a total of 16,290 new cases of oral cancer were estimated in Brazil in 2017, with 12,370 new cases of oral cavity cancer in men and 4,010 in women corresponding to an estimated risk of 11.54 cases new for every 100 thousand men and 3.92 for each 100 thousand women. In this sense, oral cancer therapy is associated with a multitude of head and neck sequelae including hyposalivation, increased risk of tooth decay, osteoradionecrosis of the jaw, radiation fibrosis syndrome, mucositis, chemotherapy-induced neuropathy, dysgeusia, dysphagia, mucosal lesions, trismus, and infections. Objective: It was to present the main clinical approaches to dental treatment in cancer patients through a systematic review. Methods: The PRISMA Platform systematic review rules were followed. The search was carried out from November 2023 to February 2024 in the Scopus, PubMed, Science Direct, Scielo, and Google Scholar databases. The quality of the studies was based on the GRADE instrument and the risk of bias was analyzed according to the Cochrane instrument. Results and Conclusion: A total of 156 articles were found, 58 articles were evaluated in full and 29 were included and developed in the present systematic review study. Considering the Cochrane tool for risk of bias, the overall assessment resulted in 32 studies with a high risk of bias and 20 studies that did not meet GRADE and AMSTAR-2. Most studies did not show homogeneity in their results, with X2=61.8%>50%. It was concluded that preparing a comprehensive treatment plan for cancer patients is essential to help minimize the risks of developing these oral and dental complications. Additionally, dentists should consider the patient's ongoing oncology therapy for those patients who see the dentist while receiving cancer treatment.