Oral administration of nanomicelle curcumin in the prevention of radiotherapy‐induced mucositis in head and neck cancers

• Published in: Special care in dentistry Vol. 39; no. 2; pp. 166 - 172
• Main Authors: Delavarian, Zahra, Pakfetrat, Atessa, Ghazi, Ala, Jaafari, Mahmoud Reza, Homaei Shandiz, Fatemeh, Dalirsani, Zohreh, Mohammadpour, Amir Hooshang, Rahimi, Hamid Reza
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01-03-2019
• Subjects: Cancer; clinical trial; Clinical trials; Curcumin; Head & neck cancer; head and neck cancer; Inflammation; Mucositis; nanomicelle curcumin; Oral administration; Patients; Quality of life; Radiation therapy; radiotherapy; Side effects; Statistical analysis; clinical trial; radiotherapy; mucositis; nanomicelle curcumin; head and neck cancer
• ISSN: 0275-1879; 1754-4505
• DOI: 10.1111/scd.12358

Oral mucositis (OM) is a complication of head and neck cancer (HNC) therapy with negative impact on the quality of life. Although definitive treatment has not yet been established, there is interest towards the use of natural compounds owing to their few side effects. Curcumin has a variety of biological and pharmacological properties including anticancer and anti‐inflammatory effects.
Aim
The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of curcumin in the form of nanomicelle on OM in HNC patients receiving radiotherapy.
Methods
In this clinical trial, 32 HNC patients were allocated to case and control groups, and respectively received nanocurcumin or placebo during radiotherapy.
Results
We found a statistically significant difference in the severity of mucositis between the 2 groups at all visits. In contrast to the control‐group patients, who all developed OM in the 2nd week of radiotherapy, only 32% of the case group developed OM with no obvious oral or systemic side effects.
Conclusion
Our data show that nanomicelle curcumin is an effective agent in the prevention of OM or reducing its severity. Thus, the administration of nanocurcumin can be considered as a reasonable approach to hinder the development of OM in HNC patients requiring radiotherapy.