Sores may develop within one week after chemotherapy starts. High-dose chemotherapy, such as that used for leukemia and bone marrow transplantation, may cause severe mucositis. Drugs given by continuous infusion or frequent, repetitive, intermittent schedules are more likely to cause mucositis than the same drugs given by a single short infusion. When there is no infection, mucositis will heal by itself, usually within 2 to 4 weeks. Once mucositis has developed, proper treatment depends on how severe the mucositis is and the patient's white blood cell count.
Care focuses on extremely careful cleaning and relieving the symptoms.
The teeth and mouth should be cleaned at least twice a day and at bedtime. Cleaning should be done more frequently if the mucositis becomes worse. Infection Oral mucositis is made worse by infection in the patient who has an immune system that is not working well. The mouth itself can become infected, and the loss of skin in the mouth can allow disease-causing organisms to get into the bloodstream. Once the mouth is affected, even normal good bacteria can cause infections, as well as disease-causing organisms picked up from the hospital or other sources.