Effectiveness of Honey on Radiation-Induced Oral Mucositis Among Patients with Head and Neck Malignancies: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

While radiotherapy remains the cornerstone of head and neck cancer treatment, oral mucositis is a very serious side effect, especially grade III/IV oral mucositis. Oral mucositis not only seriously reduces the quality of life of patients, but also affects the ongoing treatment of patients. Use of honey for the remediation of oral mucositis promising, but clinically controversial. Therefore, to further ascertain its role in oral mucositis, an extensive literature search was performed in the Pubmed, Embase and Cochrane databases. Thirteen randomized controlled trials with 899 patients were included in the analysis. Pooled Odds ratio with 95% confidence intervals was analyzed. The results show that a significantly fewer number of patients treated with honey experienced grade III/IV oral mucositis after radiotherapy (OR 0.24, 95% CI 0.13–0.44, p < 0.001). The administration of honey concurrently with radiotherapy decreased the rate of graded III/IV oral mucositis. Thus, the use of honey during radiotherapy may represent a feasible strategy for preserving tolerance.