Mucositis
Mucositis is inflammation and ulceration of the lining of the digestive tract, from the lips to the anus, caused by chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
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Medicines commonly prescribed for Mucositis
For informational purposes only. Always consult a doctor before using any medicine.
Dosage form: TABLET, 1 gActive substance: paracetamolManufacturer: Laboratorios Cinfa S.A.Prescription not requiredDosage form: TABLET, 650 mgActive substance: paracetamolManufacturer: Dermogen-Farma S.A.Prescription not requiredDosage form: TABLET, 650 mgActive substance: paracetamolManufacturer: Sandoz Farmaceutica S.A.Prescription not required
Mucositis is inflammation and ulceration of the lining of the digestive tract, from the lips to the anus, caused by chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Put like that it sounds clinical, but it is one of the most wretched parts of cancer treatment: someone who takes the infusions without complaint comes undone when they cannot swallow water. The good news is that it is temporary — the lining regenerates faster than almost any other tissue, and two to four weeks after treatment ends there is nothing left of it. The bad news is that while it lasts the pain can be severe, and against that background it is easy to miss an infection which, with the immune system flattened, takes hold within hours. This page is about making those weeks easier and about what must not be shrugged off.
Why it happens and when to expect it
Chemotherapy drugs and radiation strike at rapidly dividing cells. Tumours divide rapidly — the whole of treatment is built on that — but the lining of the mouth and bowel renews itself roughly once a week and is among the first things hit. The surface layer is lost faster than the new one grows, the tissue beneath is exposed, and an ulcer appears.
The timing is fairly predictable. After chemotherapy the mouth starts to hurt on about the fifth to tenth day, the worst comes towards the end of the second week, and it heals as the blood counts recover. With radiotherapy to the head and neck the trouble begins in the second or third week of the course, lasts to the end of it and clears two to four weeks afterwards. The bowel usually joins in later than the mouth, towards the end of the second week.
Severity is not a matter of luck. Greater risk goes with radiotherapy to the head and neck, with high-dose chemotherapy before a bone marrow transplant, with drugs from certain groups, and separately with anyone who came to treatment with decayed teeth, inflamed gums, a badly fitting denture or a dry mouth. Smoking and alcohol make the picture noticeably worse.
What it feels like in the mouth
It does not begin with ulcers but with sensations: the mouth dries, saliva thickens and strings, food tastes of nothing or of metal, and the lining burns with anything sour or hot. Then comes redness, then small white patches, and then true ulcers, most often inside the cheeks and lips, under the tongue and on the soft palate.
By that point the pain gets in the way of the essentials: eating, drinking, speaking, sleeping, wearing a denture. Bad breath is added to it, and so is a high chance of a fungal infection taking hold — thrush settles readily on damaged lining and looks like a white coating that leaves a red, bleeding patch when it comes away. It is treated separately, so a coating like that is something to mention to the doctor rather than scrape off yourself.
What happens further down
Lower down the tube it is the same thing, only out of sight. In the gullet it is pain and the feeling that a mouthful is scraping its way down. In the stomach and bowel it is cramps, bloating, rumbling, nausea, diarrhoea, sometimes with mucus. Around the anus the lining is inflamed too: burning, splits, pain on opening the bowels, traces of blood on the paper.
Diarrhoea here is not a domestic inconvenience. During cancer treatment it puts a person out of action very quickly: dehydration, loss of potassium, a drop in blood pressure, all of it on an already weakened body. Counting the trips to the lavatory and reporting them to the treating team is not fussing, it is how the complication is stopped in time.
When to ring without delay
During chemotherapy an ordinary cold stops being ordinary. While the white cell count is falling, any break in the lining of the mouth is a doorway for bacteria, and blood infection develops within hours. Contact the treating team at once, or call an ambulance on the European emergency number 112, if there is:
- a temperature of 38 °C or above, and equally severe shivering and shaking even without a high reading;
- being unable to swallow saliva, water or tablets;
- signs of dehydration: little urine, dark urine, dizziness on standing, a dry tongue;
- vomiting that will not stop, or more than six loose stools a day;
- heavy bleeding in the mouth or in the stool, or black tarry stools;
- severe abdominal pain with a swollen belly and no wind or stool passing;
- difficulty breathing, confusion, unusual drowsiness.
One important point about fever medicines: paracetamol brings the temperature down and with it hides the main warning sign. During a course of chemotherapy it is not taken just in case — the temperature is measured and the call is made first, and what follows is whatever the doctor advises.
What to sort out before treatment starts
The most effective part of the work falls in the period when nothing hurts yet. Before a course of chemotherapy or radiotherapy to the head and neck it is worth seeing a dentist and saying what treatment is coming and when it starts. Decay is treated and hopeless teeth are taken out in advance, so the gum heals before the white cells fall: afterwards nothing can be extracted. Scale is removed, gum inflammation is treated, a denture is adjusted or set aside if it rubs. Sharp edges on fillings are smoothed off.
That is also the moment to stop smoking, to come to an arrangement with yourself about alcohol, to buy a soft brush and fluoride toothpaste, and to ask the team whether sucking ice during the infusion suits your case: with some short infusions the cold narrows the vessels of the lining, less of the drug reaches it, and there are markedly fewer ulcers. It is a simple trick, but it does not work with every regimen, which is why it is agreed first.
Day-to-day care
Mouth care during treatment is not tidiness for its own sake but direct prevention of complications. It takes a few minutes and genuinely changes things.
- brush with a soft brush after every meal and before bed, with fluoride toothpaste and without vigorous scrubbing;
- rinse several times a day with a warm solution: half a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda in a glass of water, made fresh each time and not swallowed;
- steer clear of alcohol-based mouthwashes and hydrogen peroxide, which dry and sting damaged lining;
- use floss gently, and stop altogether if the gums bleed or the platelet count is low;
- take dentures out overnight and through the sorest days, clean them separately and keep them moist;
- keep the lips greased with balm, sip water through the day, chew sugar-free gum if the mouth is dry;
- eat soft, moist food at room temperature: soup, purée, cottage cheese, omelette, porridge, banana, custard;
- set aside anything spicy, sour, salty, dry or crunchy — toast, crisps, crusty bread, citrus, tomatoes — along with hot drinks, fizzy drinks and alcohol.
With diarrhoea, drink more, cut back fibre and fat for the time being, and take anti-diarrhoeal medicines only if the doctor has said so: with some treatment regimens they are not allowed. The skin around the anus is washed with warm water and no soap, patted rather than rubbed dry, and protected with a barrier cream.
What relieves the pain and what the doctor can prescribe
There is nothing to be gained by putting up with it: pain relief is stepped up until the person can eat and sleep. It starts locally — anaesthetic rinses and gels before meals, coating solutions, saliva substitutes for dryness. In head and neck radiotherapy, anti-inflammatory mouthwashes are used. If local measures are not enough, systemic painkillers are prescribed, opioids included: in severe mucositis that is standard practice rather than a last resort.
Separately, what is best not bought off the shelf. Anti-inflammatory painkillers and aspirin during cancer treatment are taken only with the doctor's permission: they damage the stomach and the kidneys and increase bleeding, and platelets during a course are low as it is.
What else is in the armoury: antifungal and antiviral medicines if infection has settled on the ulcers; antispasmodics and anti-diarrhoeals; acid-reducing drugs when the gullet hurts. A procedure in its own right is low-level laser treatment of the lining of the mouth, in short daily sessions during the course; it is used to prevent mucositis and to reduce pain where such equipment exists. If pain makes eating impossible, a dietitian steps in: nutritional supplements and, where needed, tube feeding for a few weeks. That is not a defeat but the way to avoid losing weight and holding up the main treatment.
Online consultation
Mucositis is a convenient reason for a remote appointment: it is needed often, briefly, and usually between hospital visits, when there is no energy for the journey. What the doctor needs is a photograph of the mouth in good light and some numbers: which day of the cycle it is, which regimen is being given, how many stools there have been, how much has been drunk, what the temperature was morning and evening, and how long it has been since the person could eat properly.
From that the main questions get settled: whether this is the usual course of things or the moment to worry; whether the white coating looks like thrush; what will ease the pain today and what can be eaten; whether the care routine needs changing; which pharmacy products are safe in this case and which are best left alone. Food deserves its own stretch of the conversation: what to drink and what to replace meals with while swallowing hurts.
The limits are plain. Looking down the throat, taking a swab and interpreting a blood test that has not been done yet cannot happen through a screen, and the decision to delay or change a cycle always belongs to the treating oncologist. And with a temperature of 38 °C, shaking chills, an inability to drink or black stools, what is needed is not an appointment but urgent contact with the hospital, or an ambulance.
This material is for information only and does not replace medical advice.
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