Effects of curcumin on the prevention and treatment of mucosal inflammation caused by radiation therapy in patients with head and neck cancer.

Ghazi, Ala; Delavarian, Zahra; Pakfetrat, Atssa; Homaee, Fateme; Delirsani, Zohre; Jafari, Mahmodreza

Objectives: Oral mucositis is a common complication caused by radiation therapy in patients with head and neck cancer, which has debilitating effects on the quality of life. Different methods have been applied for the prevention and treatment of oral mucositis and reducing the severity of this problem. However, no definitive treatments are available yet. Since natural compounds are associated with fewer side effects compared to chemical and synthetic drugs, they could be experimented and used for the treatment of oral mucositis in cancer patients. Curcumin is a derivative compound obtained from turmeric with several biological and pharmacological properties, as well as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticancer effects. This study aimed to investigate the effects of curcumin on the prevention and treatment of oral mucositis caused by radiation therapy in patients with head and neck cancer. Materials and Methods: This double-blinded, clinical trial was conducted on 32 patients undergoing radiation therapy for head and neck cancer at the Oncology Department of Omid Hospital, affiliated to Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, and Reza Health Care Center in 2014. Patients who met the inclusion criteria were enrolled in this study and were randomly divided into two groups of control and experiment. Dietary nano-micelle curcumin (80 mg capsules) were prescribed for the experimental group, and control subjects received placebo (lactose pills) daily during six weeks in the process of radiation therapy. Patients were examined weekly according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Common Toxicity Criteria (CTC) (V2) to evaluate the incidence and severity of mucositis. Data analysis was performed using SPSS V.16, Kolmogorov- Smirnov test, independent t-test, Chi-square test, Mann-Whitney test and Friedman's test. Results: In this study, 19 male and 13 female patients with the mean age of 59.1814.85± were investigated. All subjects were homogenous in terms of age, gender, history of smoking, dental condition, radiation dose, tumor type, tumor location and body weight. During the study, two patients at the 4th week and one patient at the 5th week were excluded from the study, and 29 patients continued therapy. In the experimental group, severity of oral mucositis was significantly lower compared to the control group during all the session of radiation therapy. In addition, all patients in the control group developed mucositis, while only 43.8% of experimental subjects showed symptoms of mucositis at the second week of therapy. In this regard, there was a significant difference between the two study groups (p=0.002), and curcumin nano-micelles were reported to cause no oral complications. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, use of curcumin nano-micelles could delay the incidence of mucosite and diminish the severity of this problem. Moreover, curcumin was observed to cause no complications in the patients. Therefore, curcumin nano-micelles could be used for the prevention and treatment of mucositis in patients with head and neck cancer undergoing radiation therapy. It is recommended that future studies with large sample sizes be conducted to evaluate the exact effects of this herbal medicine on mucosite.

MUCOSITIS; RADIOTHERAPY; CURCUMIN; THERAPEUTICS

Avicenna Journal of Phytomedicine, 2015, Vol 5, p43

2228-7930

Academic Journal