Severe mucositis: how can nutrition help?

Abstract

To review the recent evidence on the effect of nutrition on the incidence and severity of mucositis following anticancer treatment. There have been many recent publications on mucositis and on nutrition in cancer, but very few on nutrition and mucositis in cancer. It is difficult to establish a definite link between nutritional status, nutritional interventions and mucositis. Malnutrition is probably a risk factor for mucositis, however, and some of the interventions that improve nutrition in cancer patients and reduce the risk of cancer in the general population work via mechanisms that might positively affect the development and course of mucositis. Whilst it can be tempting to extrapolate these findings to suggest that nutritional support can reduce the incidence and severity of mucositis, this would be premature. There may well be a link between nutritional status, nutritional supplementation, anticancer treatment and mucositis, but it is not yet proven; and mechanism-based, prospective, randomized studies are required to answer the question. This is likely to be an area of increased study in the future.