Prevention of oral complications in cancer patients.

This paper identifies future research strategies relative to prevention of oral complications of cancer and its treatment, with specific emphasis on radiation and/or myelosuppressive therapy. Data relative to both oral/pharyngeal cancers and cancers the treatment of which profoundly affects the oral cavity are highlighted. The basis for the presentation is: (a) the report that emanated from the 1989 National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Conference on "Oral Complications of Cancer Therapies: Diagnosis, Prevention, and Treatment," the proceedings of which were published in 1990; and (b) the Statistics Review Monograph "Cancers of the Oral Cavity and Pharynx, 1973-1987," published in 1991. In this context, discussion on preventive research strategies relative to surgical therapy of the cancer patient is minimal. Emphasis is placed on prevention of oral complications in the older adult cancer patient.