Comparison of radiation-induced oral mucositis scoring systems.
BACKGROUND
A number of oral toxicity scoring systems have been described, but their direct comparison has rarely been undertaken and little data exists. An impediment to mucositis research has been the lack of an accepted, validated scoring system. The objective of this study was to design a test and validation of scoring systems.


METHODS
Forty-three patients with head and neck malignancies who had been irradiated were evaluated. Five different mucositis scoring systems (World Health Organization, Radiation Therapy Oncology Group, "Hickey", "Van der Schueren" and "Makkonen") were compared with each other.


RESULTS
Daily mucositis scores demonstrated a high correlation among scoring systems (P < 0.05 and coefficient of correlation kappa and r = 0.5-0.95). Objective mucositis scores demonstrated a strong correlation with symptoms.


CONCLUSIONS
All scoring systems were equally valid. The exact grading of mucositis is achieved by combining clinical information about pain and nutritional status with oral mucosal reactions.
Etiz
Durmuş
D
Osmangazi University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Radiation Oncology, Eskişehir, Turkey. detiz@ogu.edu.tr
Orhan
Bülent
B
Demirüstü
Canan
C
Ozdamar
Kazim
K
Cakmak
Ahmet
A
D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D006801:Humans; D009061:Mouth Mucosa / Q000528:radiation effects*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011832:Radiation Injuries / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index