Radiotherapy-induced Oral Mucositis

This is a multicenter, randomized, controlled, prospective clinical trial designed to observe and evaluate the safety and efficacy of Modified Dahuang Huanglian Xiexin Mouthwash for the prevention of radiotherapy-induced oral mucositis (RTOM). Participants will be randomly assigned to receive either the Modified Dahuang Huanglian Xiexin Mouthwash or Placebo Mouthwash. The study aims to assess the preventative effect on RTOM in patients undergoing radiotherapy.

Evaluate the effectiveness and safety of traditional Chinese medicine compound in improving radiotherapy-induced oral mucositis in patients with head and neck malignant tumors.

Radiotherapy is the main treatment method for head and neck tumors. However, almost all patients with head and neck tumors will develop acute inflammatory reactions such as Radiotherapy-Induced Oral Mucositis (RIOM) after receiving Radiotherapy, resulting in a decline in the quality of life of patients, hindering the smooth implementation of the treatment plan, reducing the therapeutic effect, and increasing the economic burden of patients. However, the current treatment strategies for RIOM focus on symptomatic treatment and have little impact on the course, severity and related complications of mucositis. Therefore, exploring effective strategies, predicting the incidence and severity of RIOM in patients, and providing prevention and treatment are the clinical bottlenecks and cutting-edge issues that urgently need to be solved in the current clinical practice of radiotherapy for head and neck tumors. Previous studies have shown that the steady-state of metallic elements may be closely related to the occurrence and development of RIOM. Therefore, we plan to conduct a prospective, single-center, observational study to further explore the correlation between metal elements and severe RIOM, analyze its predictive efficacy, and observe the dynamic changes of metal elements in radiotherapy.

Radiotherapy-Induced Oropharyngeal Mucositis (RIOM) is one of the most distressing side effects for patients with head and neck tumors during radiotherapy, requiring clinical physicians to manage it according to the severity of mucositis to alleviate symptoms and improve quality of life. However, traditional diagnosis of RIOM overly relies on subjective evaluation, lacks early sensitivity, and existing biomarker diagnostic methods suffer from insufficient efficacy, invasiveness, and inconsistent results. This study aims to explore the diagnostic and predictive value of exhaled breathomics in RIOM of head and neck tumors. By collecting exhaled breath samples from head and neck tumor patients undergoing radiotherapy and analyzing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) using breath detection technology, we aim to develop and validate a non-invasive diagnostic and predictive model based on exhaled breathomics. The study will identify specific VOCs as potential biomarkers, providing new tools for early diagnosis, timely prediction, and personalized treatment of RIOM.

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is the sixth most common cancer worldwide, with more than 700,000 new cases and more than 350,000 deaths each year. At present, radiotherapy is an important measure to control the recurrence of head and neck tumors, but almost all patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma will have acute inflammatory reactions such as radiotherapy-induced oral mucositis (RIOM) after radiotherapy, which seriously affects the quality of life and radiotherapy efficacy of patients. Serum amyloid A1 (SAA1) is an acute phase protein associated with inflammation. Our previous basic research found that serum SAA1 expression levels can be used as biomarkers to assess the dose received by the receptor in the early stages of radiation damage. At the same time, we confirmed that the serum level of SAA1 in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma increased after radiotherapy. Therefore, we intend to conduct a prospective, multicenter, observational study to further explore the predictive power of plasma SAA1 levels for radiotherapy-induced oral mucositis, with a view to early screening and prevention of RIOM patients.