The effect of radiotherapy on mucociliary clearance in patients with laryngeal and nasopharyngeal cancer.

The present study aimed to demonstrate how the nasal mucociliary transport times are affected in the patients receiving radiotherapy for head-neck tumor in two different anatomic localizations. The study included 44 patients receiving radiotherapy under the diagnoses of the nasopharyngeal and laryngeal cancer. The mucociliary transport times of both groups were measured via saccharine tablets before radiotherapy, and at months 3 and 6 after radiotherapy. The difference between the groups was statistically evaluated. The pre-irradiation (pre-RT) mean transport times of NPC and LC patients were 9.7 and 9.1 min, respectively. The difference in the mucociliary transport times between these two groups was not statistically significant (p = 0.49). The mean transport time was 26.1 min at post-RT month 3, 23.9 min, at month 6; the change from pre-RT to month 3 was significant (p < 0.05) and the change from month 3 to 6 was not statistically significant (p = 0.182). The mean transport time of the LC patients was 16.8 min. At post-RT month 3, 12.4 min. at month 6; the change from pre-RT to month 3 (p < 0.05) and the change from month 3 to 6 were statistically significant (p = 0.007). It was found that radiotherapy affected the physiological conditions of the patients with nasopharyngeal cancer in a more severe and sustained way compared to the LC patients, which negatively affects the patient's response to the treatment by the resulting organic and psychological effects.