# Systematic review of photobiomodulation for the management of oral mucositis in cancer patients and clinical practice guidelines

Source: https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-zadik-support-care-cancer/  
OnCo record `paper-zadik-support-care-cancer` (Key paper). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Paper cited by one technology page, indexed on Europe PMC as PubMed record 31286228 and published in Supportive care in cancer; the citing page links this DOI, which is how the record was matched.

## Summary

Purpose: To systematically review the literature and update the evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for the use of photobiomodulation (PBM), such as laser and other light therapies, for the prevention and/or treatment of oral mucositis (OM).

Methods: A systematic review was conducted by the Mucositis Study Group of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer/International Society for Oral Oncology (MASCC/ISOO) using PubMed and Web of Science. We followed the MASCC methods for systematic review and guidelines development. The rigorously evaluated evidence for each intervention, in each cancer treatment setting, was assigned a level-of-evidence (LoE). Based on the LoE, one of the following guidelines was determined: Recommendation, Suggestion, or No Guideline Possible.

Results: Recommendations are made for the prevention of OM and related pain with PBM therapy in cancer patients treated with one of the following modalities: hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, head and neck (H&N) radiotherapy (without chemotherapy), and H&N radiotherapy with chemotherapy. For each of these modalities, we recommend 1-2 clinically effective protocols; the clinician should adhere to all parameters of the protocol selected. Due to inadequate evidence, currently, No Guideline Possible for treatment of established OM or for management of chemotherapy-related OM. The reported clinical settings were extremely variable, limiting data integration.

Conclusions: The evidence supports the use of specific settings of PBM therapy for the prevention of OM in specific patient populations. Under these circumstances, PBM is recommended for the prevention of OM. The guidelines are subject to continuous update based on new published data.

Indexed on Europe PMC as PubMed record 31286228 (DOI 10.1007/s00520-019-04890-2). Matched by DOI alone: one technology page cites this DOI among its external links (the pages are listed under Related), and this page was written so that the citation resolves inside OnCo. No figure has been checked by an editor.

## Fields

- Kind: Key paper
- Last checked: 2026-09-22
- Tags: europepmc-ingest
- Journal: Supportive care in cancer
- Year: 2019
- DOI: 10.1007/s00520-019-04890-2
- Authors: Zadik Y, Arany PR, Fregnani ER, et al.
- What it means: One technology page on OnCo cites this paper by its DOI; this record gives the citation a page of its own so a reader can follow it without leaving OnCo. Read the abstract above alongside the citing page listed under Related; the record was created automatically from the Europe PMC entry and its figures have not been checked by hand.
- Caveats: Matched to the citing OnCo records by DOI alone; the summary reproduces the Europe PMC abstract and no figure has been verified against the full paper.

## Sources

- Support Care Cancer 2019: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-019-04890-2
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31286228/
- Europe PMC: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/31286228

## Connected records

- technologies: [Photobiomodulation (low-level laser) for oral mucositis](https://onco.cc/technologies/photobiomodulation-mucositis/)
- journals: [Supportive care in cancer](https://onco.cc/journals/supportive-care-in-cancer/)

---
JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/paper-zadik-support-care-cancer.json