Managing the Most Common Complications of Radiation Therapy in Patients With Head and Neck Cancer

Abstract

Radiation therapy is widely used approach in treatment of head and neck cancer, unfortunately it leaves consequences that are influencing the patients’ life in a negative way. During and after the treatment with ionizing irradiation it affects not only the malignant area that is being treated, but also the surrounding tissues and organs that are located near the region that is targeted (oral mucosa, jaw bones, teeth, salivary glands, surrounding muscles and the temporomandibular joints), leaving changes in their structure and functions. Many of the patients that are treated, have not been prepared optimally for the radiation treatment, what also affects the post operative condition of their tissues and organs that are located nearby to the radiation treated area. The aim of this study was to define the most common postradiation complications in patients with head and neck cancer and to evaluate the efficiency of the solutions that are used to manage them. For this study were analyzed in details 37 published articles on the studied topic, the research was done online using the data bases NCBI, Cochrane Library, Medline, PubMed and Webmd. The inclusion criteria were: studies made in vivo; studies written in English; case reports on head and neck cancer patients; surveys on patients after radiation therapy; studies on patients with intraoral complications from after radiation therapy. Results showed that radiation induced complications in the head and neck cancer patients can be classified in three groups as early, intermediate and late changes. The most common changes were found in the tissues (mucosa, skin, subcutaneous connective tissues, salivary glands, the bone tissues and the teeth), resulting with: hyposalivation (xerostomia), mucositis, opportunistic infections, radiation caries, dysphagia, altered taste and difficulties with the chewing and swallowing. Many studies have shown that the percent of damage on the oral mucosa is strongly related to the radiation dose and the type of ionizing irradiation that patients are being treated with. Treatment consists of application of lubricants; usage of substitutes for saliva; and stimulants for the saliva production, with preparations like pilocarpine and cevimeline, and electro stimulation. The loss of the taste after the treatment can be partial or total. Mostly affected are the sour and bitter tastes, rarely the sweet and the salty taste, and very rare is total loss on all of the flavors. Fortunately in most of the studied cases has been show that the changes in the taste were reversible after a period of time, in some cases a few months and in others it can happen even up to a few years until it reaches total recovery. It is crucial to implement more solutions and to find new ways to manage the complications that follow after the irradiation, so the quality of the life in these patients can be spared in any possible way. Using the new approaches such as IMRT and VMAT on these patients, could also improve their condition after the treatment, and reduced dosage of the irradiation also could be tested and implemented if it is possible.