Ask an answerable question (PICO):
Oral mucositis is one of the most common adverse reactions of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy or radiotherapy.Severe oral mucositis is accompanied by pain,dysphagia,weight loss,increased systemic infections and economic impact.Orabase cream or Nystatin oral suspension is a commonly used for oral mucositis.The treatment effect is poor, and there is no absolutely effective treatment.The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of glutamine in evaluating oral mucositis induced by chemoradiotherapy in patients with cancer.
The Method and Analysis of Literature Review:
The key words set were: Participants: Concurrent chemoradiotherapy、Chemoradiotherapy、Radiochemotherapy、Chemoradiotherapy, Adjuvant, Intervention: Glutamine, Comparison:Placebo or No glutamine,and Outcome: Oral mucositis、Mucositis、Stomatitis. We used Bollean logic “OR and AND” to search the database from 2017-2022 in PubMed, Cochrane Library,Ovid MEDLINE,and CEPS.Total four articles were recruited.After studying them, one systematic review study was selected, for critical appraisal of the validity, relevance, and applicability of the research evidence.
Critical Appraisal:
This literature was a Systematic Review (SR) conducted in 2021. The level of evidence is Level 1 according to the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine 2011 Levels of Evidence. We also used the 2018 Critical Appraisal Skill Program (CASP) Levels of Evidence System to evaluate this article's validity, importance, and applicability outcomes; the article obtained a total score of 10, indicating the study to be of high quality. The study aimed to investigate whether glutamine efficacy in preventing and alleviating chemoradiotherapy induced oral mucositis in patients with cancer. The meta-analysis results demonstrate statistical significance of glutamine on the reduction of severe oral mucositis,concluding that glutamine can effectively reduce oral mucositis in patients with cancer.
Results, Conclusions and Recommendations:
Based on the critical appraisal results of evidence-based approach, we can conclude that glutamine could significantly reduced the severity of oral mucositis.We suggest a non-pharmacological intervention in clinical settings to relieve oral mucositis in patients with cancer undergoing chemoradiotherapy and improvement in patient quality of life.