The collaboration between clinical therapy and academic study to benefit patients

Abstract

Cancer chemotherapy-induced stomatitis may spread throughout a patient’s entire oral cavity and decrease the patient’s QOL. The therapy for stomatitis at Iwate Medical University Hospital (IMUH) includes dental treatment before chemotherapy, in addition to oral rinses or cryotherapy as a preventative measure. However, in our survey of doctors and nurses, the responses of patients “satisfied” with the present approach for stomatitis treatment reached only 5.1%. Therefore, we attempted treatment using an indomethacin spray, prepared as a hospital preparation, with pre-approval of the ethics committee and based on a previous report of its positive effect on patients at another hospital. We observed that the indomethacin spray succeeded in decreasing chemotherapy-induced oral pain, and its effect was maintained for 2 h in patients at IMUH. The ratio of female patients who rated indomethacin spray as good was higher than that of males. Comments from some patients included a complaint that the nozzle of the injection tip was too short; thus we increased the length of the nozzle from 2 to 7 cm. At present, indomethacin spray is being used to treat stomatitis patients at IMUH. Indeed, the indomethacin spray has been used since October 2011. It was used on 34 patients in 2016. In this review, we describe the collaboration between IMUH and the basic application of studies in our university laboratory.