Samdariya Saurabh, Lewis Shirley, Kauser Heena, Ahmed Iqbal, Kumar Dewesh
Department of Radiation Oncology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India.
Department of Radiation Oncology, Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
Indian J Palliat Care. 2015 Sep-Dec;21(3):268-73. doi: 10.4103/0973-1075.164892.
There are various drugs tried for relieving pain associated with radiation-induced mucositis. This paper aims to study role of honey in relieving pain due to radiation induced mucositis in head and neck cancer patients receiving concomitant chemoradiation.
A randomized controlled trial on 78 subjects (40 in test group and 38 in control group) was undertaken to study the analgesic effect of honey, but the analysis of 69 patients was done as nine patients (four in test and five in control group) were lost to follow-up or left treatment in between the study. All patients were advised to do salt-soda and benzydamine mouth gargles, alternatively every 3 hours. Test group patients additionally received 20 ml honey three times a day during the entire course of radiation treatment and 3 months following radiation therapy (RT).
Honey significantly reduced the severity of mucositis associated pain and resulted in lesser treatment gaps and a decrease in overall radiotherapy treatment duration. None of the test group and majority of controls (51.5%) had severe pain score during the 7(th) week of RT. The same pattern was seen in the post-RT period. Mean pain score was significantly different in both groups during all weeks during and upto 6 weeks post-RT (mean score of 3.08 and 6.54 for test and control respectively at 7(th) week RT, P < 0.001).
Honey being a cheap, palatable, and natural medicament can be used for decreasing pain associated with radiation-induced mucositis in cancer patients.
有多种药物被尝试用于缓解与放射性口腔黏膜炎相关的疼痛。本文旨在研究蜂蜜在缓解接受同步放化疗的头颈癌患者放射性口腔黏膜炎所致疼痛方面的作用。
对78名受试者（试验组40名，对照组38名）进行了一项随机对照试验，以研究蜂蜜的镇痛效果，但由于9名患者（试验组4名，对照组5名）在研究期间失访或中途退出治疗，故对69名患者进行了分析。所有患者均被建议每隔3小时交替进行盐水 - 苏打水和苄达明漱口。试验组患者在整个放射治疗过程及放疗后3个月期间，每天额外服用3次20毫升蜂蜜。
蜂蜜显著降低了与口腔黏膜炎相关的疼痛严重程度，减少了治疗中断次数，并缩短了总体放疗疗程。在放疗第7周时，试验组患者均无严重疼痛评分，而对照组大多数患者（51.5%）有严重疼痛评分。放疗后阶段也出现了相同的模式。在放疗期间及放疗后6周内的所有周数中，两组的平均疼痛评分均有显著差异（放疗第7周时，试验组和对照组的平均评分分别为3.08和6.54，P < 0.001）。
蜂蜜作为一种廉价、可口的天然药物，可用于减轻癌症患者放射性口腔黏膜炎相关的疼痛。
