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Photobiomodulation and a taste and swallowing programme for mouth and throat toxicity

Mouth ulcers and loss of taste from chemo and radiotherapy stop people eating. Low-level light therapy and structured swallowing and taste rehabilitation can help; make them standard.

Oral mucositis affects most patients receiving head and neck radiotherapy and many on intensive chemotherapy; photobiomodulation (low-level laser) is recommended by MASCC/ISOO for prevention in defined settings but is rarely available. Taste alteration and dysphagia are under-treated and drive malnutrition. The proposal is a bundled programme: photobiomodulation in eligible patients, prophylactic swallowing exercises, dietetic taste rehabilitation, and standard PRO measurement, implemented in radiotherapy and transplant units.

Hypothesis
The bundle reduces severe mucositis by a third, reduces feeding tube dependence at six months, and improves weight maintenance during head and neck radiotherapy.
Rationale
Each component has randomised support; delivery as a bundle with measurement is the missing piece.
What would test it
Cluster-randomised implementation across radiotherapy units; primary endpoint severe mucositis incidence and feeding tube dependence at six months.
Maturity
early clinical
Who has to act
research
Cost to try
Small (under $1M)
Years to first evidence
3
Bottlenecks it attacks

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Pages like this

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cancers

1
Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

technologies

1
IMRT / IGRT (modern external beam)

bottlenecks

1
Toxicity and quality of life are undervalued