Can oral cryotherapy help to prevent chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis?

Question:
Can oral cryotherapy help to prevent chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis?
Clinical Answer:
Oral cryotherapy may be an effective intervention to reduce oral mucositis in adult patients receiving fluorouracil-based (5FU) chemotherapy. Effects in people receiving other chemotherapy regimens are less clear.

Moderate-quality evidence showed that, compared with no treatment or standard care, oral cryotherapy can reduce the risk of any severity of oral mucositis in adult patients on fluorouracil-based (5FU) chemotherapy for solid cancers (in average 444 versus 728 per 1000 people). Similar reduction was reported for adults with moderate to severe or severe mucositis.

Moderate-quality evidence also showed that oral cryotherapy may reduce the risk of developing severe oral mucositis cryotherapy in people receiving high-dose melphalan prior to stem cell transplantation, but effects on other outcomes (any mucositis and moderate and severe mucositis) in this population are uncertain, as results come from trials with small sample sizes.

There is not enough randomized controlled trial evidence to assess the effects of cryotherapy in people receiving methotrexate treatment post-stem cell transplantation to prevent graft-versus-host disease.

Data also showed that oral cryotherapy may reduce oral pain but cause minor adverse events such as headaches, chills, numbness/taste disturbance, and dental pain.

There is no randomized controlled trial evidence assessing oral cryotherapy in children or in patients receiving other modes of cancer treatment.