BUFFALO, N.Y. – University at Buffalo researchers and collaborators have completed a series of studies that reveal how much painful mouth sores known as oral mucositis increase infection risks in stem cell transplant patients and how artificial intelligence can be used to more accurately predict those risks.
Their paper, published Aug. 14 in the journal Cancers, revealed that patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplants (HSCT) for blood cancers who develop oral mucositis are at nearly four times the risk of developing a severe infection compared to those without the condition. This is the first time that risk has been quantified.
The paper is the most comprehensive synthesis to date of recent findings on individual risk factors for oral mucositis, whether the transplant involves a patient’s own stem cells or donor cells. Risk factors are identified as specific drugs, such as methotrexate, high-dose chemotherapy, female gender, younger age, kidney issues, and reactivation of the herpes simplex virus…