Oral complications of cancer therapies. Description and incidence of oral complications.

No part of the body reflects the complications of cancer chemotherapy as visibly and as vividly as the mouth. The infectious, hemorrhagic, cytotoxic, nutritional, and neurologic signs of drug toxicity are reflected in the mouth by changes in the color, character, comfort, and continuity of the mucosa. The stomatologic complications of radiotherapy for oral cancer are physical and physiological in nature, transient or lasting in duration, and reversible or irreversible in type. Some linger as permanent mementos long after the cancer has been destroyed. They stem from radiation injury to the salivary glands, oral mucosa, oral musculature, alveolar bone, and developing teeth. They are expressed clinically by xerostomia, trismus, radiation dermatitis, nutritional stomatitis, and dentofacial malformation. In both cancer chemotherapy and cancer radiotherapy, the oral complications vary in pattern, duration, intensity, and number, with not every patient developing every complication.