A Randomized Placebo- Controlled Double Blind Clinical Trial of Quercetin in the Prevention and Treatment of Chemotherapy-Induced Oral Mucositis

Oral Mucositis (OM) is a serious complication of chemotherapy that results in painful debilitating inflammation that sometimes ends in interruption of treatment. The study evaluated the effect of quercetin (a natural flavonoid) on preventing and treating chemotherapy induced OM in patients with blood malignancies. This double-blind, placebo controlled randomized trial was carried out on 20 adult patients who underwent high dose chemotherapy for blood malignancies. Patients were divided into two groups (10 patients in the intervention group and 10 patients in the control group). Patients in the intervention group were administered 250 mg quercetin capsules twice daily for four weeks. Nine out of 20 patients developed OM (three in the intervention group and six in the control group). The incidence of OM was lower in the intervention group although it was not statistically significant (p=0.189). The mean severity of OM was higher in the intervention group (2.6 vs 2). Healing time, age, gender, type of malignancy, drug type and duration of OM were not different in two groups. The incidence of mucositis was lower in the quercetin group, but mucositis was more severe in the intervention group, which may be due to lower oral health status in the intervention group.