Chemotherapy increases the prevalence of radiotherapy-related trismus in head and neck cancer patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: To evaluate the influence of chemotherapy on the prevalence of trismus in irradiated head and neck cancer patients.

Material and methods: This systematic review guided by PRISMA-2020 and registered in PROSPERO (CRD42021255377) screened 963 articles in 7 scientific-databases (PubMed, Lilacs, Livivo, Scopus, Embase, Web of Science, EBSCO) and 3 grey-literature databases (Open Grey, Google Scholar, ProQuest) and eight articles were included for qualitative synthesis, meta-analysis (combined odds ratio, inverse variance method plus random effects), heterogeneity analysis (I² and Tau²), one-of-out evaluation and publication bias analysis (Eggs' and Begg's tests) (RevMan®, p<0.05). The Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale Cohort Studies was used to assess the risk of bias (RoB). The classification assessment, development, and recommendations (GRADE) approach was used to assess the certainty of evidence.

Results: The eight articles evaluated 1474 patients treated with chemoradiotherapy and 858 patients treated with radiotherapy. Five articles had low RoB, and three had high RoB. Chemoradiotherapy significantly (p=0.0003) increased the prevalence of trismus (OR=2.55, 95% CI = 1.53-4.23) compared to radiotherapy, with significant (p=0.010) but low heterogeneity (I²=59%;Tau²=0.29). There was no significant risk of publication bias, one-out analysis showed no significant difference between studies, and GRADE showed a moderate level of evidence. Trismus was directly associated to worse quality of life.

Conclusions: The incidence of trismus increases when chemotherapy is combined with radiotherapy for head and neck cancer, which negatively impacts the quality of life. Key words:Radiotherapy, Chemoradiotherapy, Head and Neck Neoplasms, Trismus, Quality of Life.