Effectiveness of Adjunctive Analgesics in Head and Neck Cancer Patients Receiving Curative (Chemo-) Radiotherapy: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Abstract Objective Our aim was to give an overview of the effectiveness of adjunctive analgesics in head and neck cancer (HNC) patients receiving (chemo-) radiotherapy. Design Systematic review. Interventions This systematic review was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, and ClinicalTrials.gov were searched for studies concerning “head neck cancer,” “adjunctive analgesics,” “pain,” and “radiotherapy.” Outcome Measures Pain outcome, adverse events, and toxicity and other reported outcomes, for example, mucositis, quality of life, depression, etc. Results Nine studies were included in our synthesis. Most studies were of low quality and had a high risk of bias on several domains of the Cochrane Collaboration tool. Only two studies comprised high-quality randomized controlled trials in which pregabalin and a doxepin rinse showed their effectiveness for the treatment of neuropathic pain and pain from oral mucositis, respectively, in HNC patients receiving (chemo-) radiotherapy. Conclusions More high-quality trials are necessary to provide clear evidence on the effectiveness of adjunctive analgesics in the treatment of HNC (chemo-) radiation-induced pain.