Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Jul;34(7):985-93.
doi: 10.1002/hed.21848. Epub 2011 Sep 26.

Acute-phase response reactants as objective biomarkers of radiation-induced mucositis in head and neck cancer

Fazilat F Mohammed  1 , Ian Poon, Liying Zhang, Liz Elliott, Ian D Hodson, Stephen M Sagar, James Wright
Affiliations

Acute-phase response reactants as objective biomarkers of radiation-induced mucositis in head and neck cancer

Fazilat F Mohammed et al. Head Neck. 2012 Jul.

Abstract

Background: Current evaluation of radiation-induced mucositis in head and neck cancer relies on subjective scoring with interrater variability. We evaluated serum erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) as objective markers of radiation-induced mucositis.

Methods: Weekly serum CRP and ESR levels were measured in patients treated for head and neck cancer with radiation ± chemotherapy. Acute radiation toxicity was evaluated using National Cancer Institute of Canada-Common Toxicity Criteria (NCIC-CTC) version 2.0 and the Head and Neck Radiotherapy Questionnaire (HNRQ).

Results: ESR and CRP levels were significantly elevated by 3 weeks (p = .01) and 6 weeks (p = .0002), respectively, and independent of age or pretreatment surgery. ESR was significantly dependent on radiation dose (p = .0004) and significantly higher with chemoradiation (p = .03).

Conclusion: Serum ESR and CRP rise reliably in a radiation dose-dependent manner. ESR correlated with clinical symptoms and distinguished patients receiving chemoradiation. ESR and CRP may be an objective and sensitive marker of radiation-induced mucositis.

PubMed Disclaimer