Mucosamin Spray for the Prevention of Oral Mucositis in Cancer Patients Receiving Chemotherapy: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Abstract

Introduction

It has been suggested that hyaluronic acid can prevent oral mucositis in patients receiving cancer treatment. We aimed to compare the efficacy of a commercial preparation of sodium hyaluronate spray supplemented with a pool of amino acids (Mucosamin) to standard oral care (SOC) in the prevention of chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis.

Methods

In this retrospective cohort study, consecutive cancer patients who had received chemotherapy without prior or concomitant radiotherapy at a tertiary care University Hospital in Naples, Italy, were eligible for inclusion. The exposure of interest was the use of Mucosamin spray prior to commencing the prescribed cycle of chemotherapy. The primary endpoint of the study was the onset of oral mucositis in both groups during and after their chemotherapy regimens. The secondary endpoint was to determine the severity of pain for patients who developed oral mucositis in either group.

Results

A reduction was observed in the incidence of mucositis in patients who had used Mucosamin prophylactically (4%, 2/57) compared to SOC (33%, 16/49), with an effect size ϕ of 0.39. Patients in the Mucosamin group experienced a significant risk reduction (RR = 0.11; 95% CI 0.03–0.44). The use of Mucosamin resulted in an absolute risk reduction of 29.14%, and the number needed to treat to prevent one additional case of mucositis was 3.43.

Discussion

Our results show that cancer patients receiving Mucosamin spray prior to the commencement of chemotherapy are at a reduced risk of developing oral mucositis compared to those receiving care as usual.