title: Treatment of chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis with light-emitting diode.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to assess the clinical effectiveness of phototherapy with noncoherent light in the alleviation of chemotherapy-induced mucositis in patients with metastatic cancer.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Mucositis occurs in more than 40% of chemotherapy-treated patients, significantly reducing the quality of their lives. Many different interventions have been evaluated to reduce oral mucositis. Recently, good results have been achieved by phototherapy with photoradiation, a technique which has virtually no side effects. Some clinical results seem to indicate that also phototherapy through noncoherent light emissions which can be produced by less expensive light sources such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs) may be effective. However, until now, no studies have been available on this subject.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twelve patients, aged from 34 to 82, selected on the basis of a diagnosis of chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis, were treated intra-orally through a noncoherent LED emission, wavelength 645 +/- 15 nm, 7.8 mW, fluence 0.99 J/cm(2), three times a day for 1 week. Mucositis was scored daily using the Daily Mucositis Index (DMI), a scale that evaluates the disease evolution through 16 different items. The primary end-point assessed was the time to recovery, from the start of LED treatment, compared to a nonrandomized control group of 12 patients with comparable stomatitis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The median healing time, expressed as the DMI decrease, was 1.7 (range 1-2.8) and, in seven LED-treated patients, was shorter than in the control group. The healing rate (measured as the ratio of the DMIs) increased from 117% to 164%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This pilot study shows that LED treatment is safe and capable of reducing the duration of chemotherapy-induced mucositis. This result needs to be confirmed in an adequate phase III study.
authors.affiliation: Radiotherapy Department, Istituto Oncologico Veneto, University of Padua, Italy. luigi.corti@unipd.it
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Corti
authors.forename: Vanna
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Chiarion-Sileni
authors.forename: Savina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Aversa
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ponzoni
authors.forename: Raimondo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: D'Arcais
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pagnutti
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fiore
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sotti
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000009:adverse effects; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010789:Phototherapy; D010865:Pilot Projects; D013280:Stomatitis / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000628:therapy*
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents