New Approaches for the Prevention and Treatment of Oral Mucositis in Children and Adolescents with Cancer

Introduction: Oral mucositis reduces the effectiveness of anticancer therapy, delays the start of treatment protocols, creates dangerous and potentially life-threatening situations and significantly degrades young patients’ quality of life.

Purpose: Description and evaluation of new methods and measures for the prevention and treatment of oral mucositis in children and adolescents with cancer.

Material and Method: A review of the literature was conducted in Pubmed database from December 2019 to February 2020. 4990 articles were retrieved and finally 15 of them studied extensively, based on the inclusion criteria.

Results: The results of the studies showed that low level laser treatment, cryotherapy, oral hygiene, diet, glutamine, ketamine, leucovorin and natural factors such as honey and chamomile are some of the most effective methods for prevention and treatment of oral mucositis.

Conclusions: More studies are needed to understand the pathophysiology of oral mucositis and to document the effectiveness of the tested methods that conduce to its prevention and treatment in children and adolescents with cancer.