The use of benzydamine HCl for the management of cancer therapy-induced mucositis: preliminary report of a multicentre study.

A multicentre study was undertaken to determine the effectiveness of benzydamine, a non-steroidal antiinflammatory drug, in relieving oral pain and inflammation due to cancer chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy-induced mucositis. Benzydamine or placebo mouthwash was administered in a double-blind fashion to patients with established mucositis who complained of at least moderate mucositis pain. Preliminary review of the data reveals encouraging trends, subjects who received benzydamine consistently reporting more effective pain relief than those receiving placebo. Benzydamine mouthwash provided good to excellent relief of oral mucositis pain when rated by patients after one day (68% vs 47%) and by examiners both after one day (60% vs 40%) and overall (60% vs 42%). When only very good to excellent responses were considered, observer impressions of benzydamine's effectiveness were found to be statistically significant (p less than .04). These initial results are encouraging and, though not all results are statistically significant, appear to support the potential usefulness of benzydamine mouthwash in managing oral mucositis due to cancer therapy.