Prevention and treatment of oral mucositis pain following cancer therapy

Cancer therapy continues to evolve; however, there are still concerns regarding the acute and late toxicities of such therapy, which affect the health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) of patients. Mucosal inflammation is one of the challenging issues in cancer therapy; currently, there is no method that can be used consistently to prevent the toxic cellular reactions associated with biological treatment. Hence, it is important to focus on treating the various symptoms related to mucosal inflammation. A growing number of modalities have shown promise in alleviating the most common symptoms, such as pain and burning sensations. The availability of such modalities has led to an overall decline in the severity of common symptoms associated with mucosal inflammation. Given the staggering effect that such symptoms have on patients’ HR-QOL, it could be argued that research aimed at reducing the pain associated with the mucosal inflammation is of greater importance than establishing the biological mechanisms responsible for cytotoxic reactions. The use of patient-controlled analgesia, opioids and low-level laser therapy reduce oral mucositis pain in patient undergoing cancer treatment. The mucosal inflammation is affected by both the nociceptive and neuropathic pain and, therefore, a combination of the different drugs channelled towards the nociceptive and neuropathic element appear would appear to have a role in treating mucositis pain.