Natural agents in the management of oral mucositis in cancer patients-systematic review.

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Oral mucositis is most severe complication of cancer therapy characterized by ulcerative lesions of oral mucosa causing negative impact on patient's quality of life. Wide variety of therapeutic agents are available to reduce the lesions of mucositis. Currently, natural herbal remedies have become popular in treating this condition due to fewer side effects than synthetic drugs.

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The aim of this systematic review is to compile evidence based studies to evaluate the effectiveness of natural agents in the management of oral mucositis induced by chemotherapy or radiotherapy in cancer patients.

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Computerized literature searches were performed to identify all published articles in the subject. The following databases were used: PUBMED [MEDLINE], SCOPUS, COCHRANE DATABASE, EMBASE and SCIENCE DIRECT using specific keywords. The search was for limited articles published in English which were read in full by two authors.

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Twenty six randomized controlled trials satisfied our inclusion criteria. Most studies showed statistically significant result demonstrating the efficacy of natural agents with minimal side effects except manuka honey which was not tolerated by few patients.

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Natural agents proved to be promising in healing cancer induced oral mucositis but future demands further randomized controlled clinical trials on these agents which should also be focused on drug interactions of the natural remedies.