Polaprezinc reduces the severity of radiation-induced mucositis in head and neck cancer patients
Controlled trialHumansTopicalWith zinc (as polaprezinc / zinc-L-carnosine) mouth rinse
This study tested carnosine together with zinc (as polaprezinc / zinc-L-carnosine) mouth rinse. Its results cannot be assigned to carnosine alone. More combination studies.
- Design
- Controlled trial
- Subjects
- 32 patients in the prospective arm, compared with a retrospective case-matched group
- Dose used in the study
- Polaprezinc mouth rinse four times a day
- Duration
- Throughout radiotherapy (60 to 66 Gy with chemotherapy)
- What was measured
- Oral mucositis grade (CTCAE version 3.0) during and after treatment, tolerability, tumour response.
What the authors reported
30 of 32 patients (93.8%) reported no complaints from the rinse and there were no serious adverse effects. Grade 3 mucositis occurred in 29.0% (mucosal findings) and 39.3% (symptoms) with polaprezinc, versus 40.0% and 60.7% in the comparison group. The authors said recovery appeared faster without loss of tumour response, and that a randomised trial is still needed.
Limits of this study
Not randomised. Historical comparison group. Thirty-two patients. Journal page reports p = 0.42 and p = 0.18 for the grade 3 comparisons in the full text.
Source
Entry checked against full text (journal site) on 2026-10-11. The dose shown is the dose the researchers used. It is not a recommendation. How to read this page.