The Elental ® elemental diet for chemoradiotherapy-induced oral mucositis: A prospective study in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma

• Published in: Molecular and clinical oncology Vol. 10; no. 1; pp. 159 - 167
• Main Authors: Harada, Koji, Minami, Haruyasu, Ferdous, Tarannum, Kato, Yoshiaki, Umeda, Hirotsugu, Horinaga, Daiju, Uchida, Kenichiro, Park, Sung Chul, Hanazawa, Hideki, Takahashi, Shotaro, Ohota, Misaki, Matsumoto, Hiromi, Maruta, Junko, Kakutani, Hiromi, Aritomi, Sanae, Shibuya, Keiko, Mishima, Katsuaki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Spandidos Publications 01-01-2019; Spandidos Publications UK Ltd; D.A. Spandidos
• Subjects: Cancer patients; Cancer therapies; Chemotherapy; Diagnosis; Diet therapy; Esophageal cancer; Health aspects; Monoclonal antibodies; Mouth cancer; Oncology; Oral cancer; Pain; Proteins; Radiation therapy; Squamous cell carcinoma; Targeted cancer therapy; Japan; oral mucositis; oral squamous cell carcinoma; elemental diet; radiation; chemoradiation; amino acids
• ISSN: 2049-9450; 2049-9469
• DOI: 10.3892/mco.2018.1769

Oral mucositis is a common adverse effect of cancer treatment that can increase the risk for local and systemic infection. This prospective study was designed to evaluate the preventive effects of an amino-acid-rich elemental diet (ED), Elental
, on radiotherapy- or chemoradiotherapy-induced mucositis in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients. Fifty patients were enrolled in this prospective study, who had received radiation (60-70 Gy) with/without chemotherapy [S-1, UFT, cisplatin (CDDP), docetaxel (DOC) plus CDDP, or Cetuximab]. The Elental
group (25 patients) had received Elental
during treatment, and the control group (25 patients) had not. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify the factors related to abatement of oral mucositis. A comparison of the rates of completion of chemoradiation treatments as well as the nutritional or inflammatory status between Elental
and control groups was performed. Multivariate analysis indicated that most of the patients who received Elental
suffered from a lower degree of mucositis and showed significantly improved rate of completion of chemoradiation (no interruption) compared to the control group. There was a significant difference between the Elental
group and the control group in terms of the mean change of C-reactive protein (CRP) levels in blood serum; however, there was no significant difference in terms of a mean change of body weight and total protein level in blood serum before and after chemoradiation. Our study shows that the Elental
elemental diet could be useful for the treatment of oral mucositis induced by chemoradiation. Elental
might also promote improved completion rates of chemoradiotherapy in OSCC patients.