A randomized, controlled clinical trial to evaluate the effects of zinc sulfate on cancer patients with taste alterations caused by head and neck irradiation

Abstract

This pharmacologic therapy is effective and well tolerated; it could become a routine in clinical practice to improve the supportive care of patients with taste alterations resulting from head and neck cancer.

A state-of-the-art review of the management and treatment of taste and smell alterations in adult oncology patients

“…Of the 12 included studies, six tested supportive TSA interventions [9][10][11][12][13][14], four tested interventions to prevent TSA [15][16][17][18] and two tested both supportive and preventive interventions [19,20]. The primary end point of 11 studies was the effects of the intervention on TSA.…”

“…First, most of the studies in this review had small samples drawn from populations where TSAs were most common, limiting generalizability. The samples of the randomized control trials (RCT) included in this review ranged from 12 to 107 participants [9,10,12,13,[16][17][18][19][20]. The remaining studies had samples ranging from 8 to 851 participants [11,14,15].…”

“…Power calculations were only reported for two studies, one at 85 % [10] and the other at 90 % [20]. Power was not relevant in the trial by Brisbois et al, as it was a proof-of-principle pilot trial [9], and power was not discussed in the remaining studies [12,13,[16][17][18][19]. Second, generalizability was reduced by the study of specific populations; four studies included only individuals with head and neck cancer [12,15,16,20], and another study limited recruitment to patients receiving docetaxel and paclitaxel [17].…”

“…As a growth factor and component of the salivary enzyme carbonic anhydrase VI, zinc contributes to sensory stem cell stimulation [11]. In the first study, zinc sulfate (45 mg po tid) appeared to provide benefit to patients [12]. Participants were given zinc sulfate tablets or placebo three times daily after meals starting with the onset of perceived TSA.…”

“…The studies in favour of zinc supplementation used validated objective measurement tools and compensated for smaller sample sizes with appropriate statistical analyses [12,18]. It is worth noting that all participants were given standardized meals and age was identified as a possible confounding variable [18].…”