Daily Time of Radiation Treatment is Associated with Subsequent Oral Mucositis Severity during radiotherapy in Head and Neck Cancer Patients.

Daily Time of Radiation Treatment is Associated with Subsequent Oral Mucositis Severity during radiotherapy in Head and Neck Cancer Patients.:

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Daily Time of Radiation Treatment is Associated with Subsequent Oral Mucositis Severity during radiotherapy in Head and Neck Cancer Patients.

Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2020 Feb 25;:

Authors: Gu F, Farrugia MK, Duncan WD, Feng Y, Hutson AD, Schlecht NF, Repasky EA, Antoch MP, Miller A, Platek A, Platek ME, Iovoli AJ, Singh AK

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Limited treatment options are available for oral mucositis, a common, debilitating complication of cancer therapy. We examined the association between daily delivery time of radiotherapy and the severity of oral mucositis in head and neck cancer patients.

METHODS: We used electronic medical records of 190 head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patients who completed radiotherapy, with or without concurrent chemotherapy, at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center between 2015 and 2017. Throughout a seven-week treatment course, patient mouth and throat soreness (MTS) was self-reported weekly using a validated oral mucositis questionnaire, with responses 0 (no)~4 (extreme). Average treatment times from day one until the day before each mucositis survey were categorized into seven groups. Multivariable-adjusted marginal average scores (LSmeans) were estimated for the repeated- and maximum-MTS, using a linear-mixed model and generalized-linear model, respectively.

RESULTS: Radiation treatment time was significantly associated with the oral mucositis severity using both repeated-MTS (n=1156;p=0.02) and maximum-MTS (n=190;p=0.04), with consistent patterns. The severity was lowest for patients treated during 8:30-<9:30am (LSmeans for maximum-MTS=2.24; standard error=0.15), increased at later treatment times and peaked at early afternoon (11:30 am-<3:00 pm, LSmeans=2.66~2.71; standard errors=0.16/0.17), and then decreased substantially after 3 pm.

CONCLUSIONS: We report a significant association between radiation treatment time and oral mucositis severity in head-neck cancer patients.

IMPACT: While additional studies are needed, these data suggest a potential simple treatment time solution to limit severity of oral mucositis during radiotherapy without increasing cost.

PMID: 32098893 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]