Quality Assessment of PBM Protocols for Oral Complications in Head and Neck Cancer Patients: Part 1

Margherita Gobbo; Elisabetta Merigo; Praveen R Arany; René-Jean Bensadoun; Alan Roger Santos-Silva; Luiz Alcino Gueiros; Giulia Ottaviani

doi:10.3389/froh.2022.945718

Quality Assessment of PBM Protocols for Oral Complications in Head and Neck Cancer Patients: Part 1

Front Oral Health. 2022 Jul 7:3:945718. doi: 10.3389/froh.2022.945718. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Margherita Gobbo¹, Elisabetta Merigo², Praveen R Arany³, René-Jean Bensadoun⁴, Alan Roger Santos-Silva⁵, Luiz Alcino Gueiros⁶, Giulia Ottaviani⁷

Affiliations

¹ Unit of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Ca' Foncello Hospital, Treviso, Italy.
² Faculty of Dentistry, Côte d'Azur University, Nice, France.
³ Oral Biology, Surgery and Biomedical Engineering, University at Buffalo, Getzville, NY, United States.
⁴ Department of Radiation Oncology, Centre de Haute Energie, Nice, France.
⁵ Oral Diagnosis Department, Piracicaba Dental School, University of Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil.
⁶ Department of Clinic and Preventive Dentistry, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil.
⁷ Department of Surgical, Medical and Health Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy.

Abstract

Background: Radiotherapy and chemotherapy are frequently employed in head and neck cancer (HNC) patients causing significant side effects that impair life quality and prognosis. Photobiomodulation (PBM) has become a growing approach to managing such oral complications. Despite its proven efficacy and absence of contraindications, there is still a lack of universally accepted disease-specific PBM protocols.

Objective: A narrative review was conducted to identify the current proposals relating to the use of PBM to treat complications of oncological treatments in HNC patients.

Methods: An electronic search in PubMed and Scopus databases was performed with the following keywords: ("photobiomodulation" OR "PBM" OR "laser therapy" OR "LLLT" OR "laser") AND ("head and neck cancer" OR "oral cancer") AND ("mucositis" OR "oral mucositis" OR "dysgeusia" OR "oedema" OR "xerostomia" OR "dermatitis" OR "trismus") until October 2021.

Results: A total of 35 papers were included in the narrative review. Oral mucositis was the most studied complication, and advisable protocols are conceivable. Although there is a growing interest in PBM to manage of xerostomia, radiodermatitis, pain, and trismus, literature is still scarce to propose a universally feasible protocol.

Conclusions: PBM therapy could significantly prevent or reduce the severity of many side effects related to cancer therapies. More research is needed to obtain recommendations over the preferable parameters.

Keywords: dermatitis; dysgeusia; oedema; oral cancer; oral mucositis; photobiomodulation; trismus; xerostomia.

Publication types

Review