Comparative evaluation of reactions of the mucosa during differently fractionated chemoradiation therapy for oral and oropharyngeal cancer

The tolerance of chemoradiation therapy techniques including the non-uniform delivery of the daily dose and standard irradiation was studied taking into account an early toxic effect on the mucosal tissues known as mucositis. The clinical observation enrolled 229 patients with primary cancer of the oral and oropharyngeal mucosa. Chemoradiation therapy delivered at the daily dose, that was split into two fractions of 1 Gy and 2 Gy with a time interval of 4-6 hours between them, provoked a significantly higher incidence of severe (grade 3) mucositis compared to chemoradiation therapy with 1 Gy + 1.5 Gy and standard radiation therapy (77.8 % versus 40.5 % and 52.7 %, respectively, p