Effects of cytotoxic drugs on oral flora of patients with different types of cancers

Abstract EN

Background : Cytotoxic therapy could be either single agent chemotherapy which has very limited application in up dated oncology field.

This study was done on patients with different types of carcer, and those patients were treated with chemotherapy either single drug (methotrexate) or combination cytotoxic drugs including methotrexate.

Materials and methods : The aim of this study is to identify the changes which occur in oral flora after application of the drug by taking swab from oral cavity of each patient before treatment and 3, 6, and 9 days of single dose treatment with cytotoxic drug(s) and a comparison was done between the types of oral microorganisms occur before and after treatment.

Results and conclusion : Oral flora was affected greatly with cytotoxic drugs especially in case of combination therapy, with increased appearance of pathogenic microorganism, and also there was increased in fungal infection.