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DOI: 10.1055/s-0044-1798201
TOXICITY PROFILE OF HEAD AND NECK CANCER PATIENTS TREATED WITH RADIOTHERAPY AT HOSPITAL MÃE DE DEUS
Authors
Introduction: Head and neck cancer represents about 10% of malignant tumors. Most treatment protocols include radiotherapy at some point, and in some cases radiotherapy is performed in conjunction with chemotherapy. Patients undergoing head and neck radiotherapy often have significant acute toxicities that may lead to treatment interruption, a factor that impacts the effectiveness of radiotherapy in combating head and neck cancer. Objective: To describe the toxicity profile of patients treated with radiotherapy at Hospital Mãe de Deus. Methodology: Patients undergoing head and neck radiotherapy since 2018 were evaluated for the main expected effects of treatment. All were treated with VMAT, had dental and nutritional monitoring and underwent daily laser therapy. Clinical conditions regarding mucositis, chewing, swallowing, salivation and taste at the beginning, middle and end of the course of treatment were evaluated. Patients were also classified according to the RTOG toxicity scale. Regarding mucositis, 72% of patients had grade 2 and 28% grade 3. Mucositis patients who had grade 3 underwent radiotherapy and concomitant chemotherapy. 54% of patients had little chewing difficulty at the beginning of treatment, but at discharge 64% of patients had very hard chewing. At the beginning of radiotherapy most patients had little or no difficulty in swallowing (90%) and at the end of radiotherapy about 50% of patients showed difficulty in swallowing. The most relevant factor of toxicity shown in the study was loss of salivation throughout treatment. At first more than 80% of patients had little or no change in salivation, at the end at least 70% had xerostomia. All patients had grade 2 in the RTOG toxicity classification and no patient needed to pause treatment. Conclusion: Although still presenting acute acute toxicities, treatment of head and neck cancer with VMAT and management of the multidisciplinary team is less aggressive and less toxic than in the literature.
Publication History
Article published online:
23 October 2019
© 2019. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
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Thais Pires Flores, Fabíola Franco Locatelli, Maryana Schwartzhaupt de Matos, Andréa Barleze da Costa. TOXICITY PROFILE OF HEAD AND NECK CANCER PATIENTS TREATED WITH RADIOTHERAPY AT HOSPITAL MÃE DE DEUS. Brazilian Journal of Oncology 2019; 15.
DOI: 10.1055/s-0044-1798201