Topical zinc Orabase (5%) in reducing the oral mucositis during cancer chemoradiotherapy

Abstract

Objectives Oral mucositis, a painful sequala of cancer chemoradiotherapy, has a significant effect on the oral mucosa. Several studies have shown that zinc could reduce the severity of oral mucositis. However, zinc formulations are available only in the form of tablets, which poses difficulty in administration during oral mucositis. The present study aimed to compare and evaluate the efficacy of topical zinc and the improvised zinc Orabase in the treatment of oral mucositis. Study Design The study was conducted at the MNJ Regional Oncology Centre among 75 patients. It was a single-center, single-blinded, randomized trial, in which 50 patients were case clusters and the remaining 25 patients were controls. The case group was randomly subdivided into 2 groups— group A with 25 patients who received topical oral 5% zinc paste, and group B consisting of 25 patients who received a combination of topical oral 5% zinc paste with the improvised zinc preparation three times daily for 35 days. Twenty-five patients were controls, who were prescribed the standard treatment provided at the cancer hospital. The groups were assessed for mucositis by the World Health Organization grading system on days 7, 14, 21, 28, and 35. Results An overall comparison among the groups and the degrees of severity of oral mucositis revealed that there was statistically significant difference among all the groups compared with the controls (analysis of variance [ANOVA]), and intergroup variations were also present. On the χ2 test, zinc Orabase group performed better on day 35 compared with the controls (0.037; P Conclusions The severity of oral mucositis decreased in both zinc intervention groups, but the improvised zinc paste Orabase (5%) showed overall decrease in the severity of oral mucositis. Further study with a larger sample size is necessary to establish the validity of this formulation for oncology practice.