Management of Pain in Oral Mucositis
A special issue of Pharmaceuticals (ISSN 1424-8247). This special issue belongs to the section "Pharmacology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 January 2025 | Viewed by 73
Special Issue Editors
2. McGovern Medical School, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), Houston, TX 77030, USA
Interests: pain management; cancer pain; innovation
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Cancer therapy-induced oral mucositis is a common and temporary but serious toxicity in the setting of cancer treatment, particularly systemic chemotherapy and radiation therapy. There is a direct correlation between the incidence and severity of oral mucositis and certain chemotherapeutic agents, the dose, and the length of therapy. Similarly, the incidence is higher in patients with reduced clearance of chemotherapy drugs and genetic susceptibility.
This disorder is due to acute oral and oropharyngeal injury, which may lead to mucosal ulcerations and severe, often intractable pain. These effects can interfere with patients’ ability to speak, adequate oral hygiene, and appropriate oral intake. Morbidity and mortality can increase because of infection risk, intolerable pain, and poor nutrition, which may result in the cessation or alteration of oncologic treatment. In this setting, oral mucositis also significantly negatively affects healthcare costs.
In patients receiving radiation therapy, the symptoms typically present after the first week of treatment and peak at week five, but lesions and pain might persist for over six weeks after the latest session.
Although uncontrolled oral pain is the final pathway to failed therapy, current efforts seem to focus on the prevention and correction of histological damage. The general management of oral mucositis has involved the use of prophylactic treatments, topical coating agents including corticosteroids, antihistamine mouthwashes, and anesthetic mouthwashes, as well as systemic non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, gabapentin, and opioid analgesics to facilitate healing and soothe pain. Antimicrobial therapy has been proposed to treat or prevent overlapped infections.
Pain associated with this pathology has been an elusive target and is perhaps the most important goal to achieve. Therefore, there is an ongoing need to identify more treatment modalities for pain associated with oral mucositis. The treatment should be non-invasive, safe, efficient, and cost-effective while providing sustained analgesia. Novel therapies are being investigated, with positive outcomes. In this Special Issue, we aim to draw together research from experts in the field that highlight therapeutic agents and strategies and identify future directions that will lead to discoveries and therapies for pain associated with this disorder.
Dr. Carlos Roldan
Dr. Thomas Chai
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- oral mucositis
- oral pain
- pain management
- cancer
- cancer therapy
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