Efficacy of Zinc on Concurrent Chemo-radiotherapy Induced Taste Alterations
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2018-11-26
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Taste changes are common in cancer patients receiving concurrent chemoradiation which become
a significant complaint and a cause of distress and morbidity. Loss of gustatory function
further advances to malnutrition, weight loss, reduced quality of life, poor compliance and
even diminished response to drug therapy. Taste is an essential sensation which serves oral
intake of food and enables to prevent the ingestion of potentially harmful and poisonous
substances. The sense of taste is crucial for an individual's well-being and psychological
health. Taste changes may advance to reduced appetite, dietary insufficiency, food repulsion
affecting body weight and anorexia further leading to impaired immunity, decline in health
status and malnutrition. As taste impairment is not a life-threatening event therefore it
might not be reported by some patients. Hence, this aspect is neglected despite being a
common and distressing side-effect of chemoradiation. Due to the location of the cancer and
the long-term effects of cancer therapies, patients with oral cavity cancers have a specially
high prevalence of chemosensory disorders. Zinc is comparatively non-toxic if taken orally,
and rather non-toxic in contrast to other trace metals such as manganese and iron. Zinc is an
integral element in both the maintenance and repair of taste buds. It is involved in
promoting the diffusion of taste stimuli to taste buds. Salivary zinc has been found in
association with Gustin (carbonic anhydrase, CA VI), a zinc-metalloprotein enzyme that may be
involved with providing nutrition to the human taste buds. Zinc influences the synthesis of
gustin required for the growth, development, maintenance and production of taste buds and
regulation of taste function.
The hypothesis was:
Null hypotheses: There is no difference in the taste acuity between test and control group
with the administration of zinc sulfate.
Alternative hypotheses: There is a difference in the taste acuity between test and control
group with the administration of zinc sulfate.
Thus, the present study aimed to observe changes in taste function of oral cancer patients by
detection and recognition thresholds before beginning their treatment (before chemoradiation
and intervention), at the end of chemoradiation and a month after and to evaluate the
preventive effect of zinc sulfate on chemoradiation-induced taste changes. To the best of our
knowledge, similar study has not been conducted before in our region.