Tooley KL

Saxon BR

Webster J

Zacharakis B

McNeil Y

Davidson GP

Butler RN

2006-10

Small intestinal mucositis is a common side-effect following high-dose chemotherapy, causing patients to experience pain and abdominal complications often leading to extended stays in hospital. A biomarker to detect these small intestinal changes does not exist in clinical practice. This study aimed to assess the noninvasive 13C-Sucrose breath test (SBT) to detect small intestinal damage associated with mucositis in pediatric cancer patients having chemotherapy. Small intestinal function was assessed in 15 pediatric cancer patients and 26 healthy children. Subjects were studied for small intestinal permeability (SIP; lactulose/rhamnose), digestive and absorptive capacity (SBT; sucrose), and oro-cecal transit time (OCTT; lactulose), by ingesting two sugar drinks containing the respective sugars. Combined tests were carried out at baseline, day 1, day 3-5 and day 6-9, and in healthy individuals on two separate occasions. A total of 25 cycles of chemotherapy were assessed. Breath samples for the SBT were collected every 15 min for 3 h (expressed as % cumulative dose at 90 min (CD)), a 5 h urine collection for SIP and breath hydrogen determined every 30 min for three hours for OCTT. Clinical mucositis occurred in seven of the 25 cycles of chemotherapy (28%). No significant difference was observed for SIP and OCTT. The SBT %CD at 90 min was significantly lower in the mucositis group compared to the unaffected group and controls at baseline (p<0.05). Patients who developed mucositis maintained a significantly lower %CD, for all test points (p<0.05) compared to the unaffected patients. In patients who developed mucositis the SBT was below the reference range of the controls at all time points. The findings show for the first time that it is possible to noninvasively detect and monitor gut damage associated with chemotherapy-induced mucositis in pediatric cancer patients.

Discipline of Physiology, School of Molecular and Biomedical Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, and Royal Darwin Hospital, Tiwi, Northern Territory, Australia..

Cancer biology & therapy 2006-10; 5(10): 1275-81

1538-4047

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17012839/?otool=iaurydwlib

https://hdl.handle.net/10137/5784

Adolescent

Antineoplastic Agents

Biomarkers

Breath Tests

Child

Child, Preschool

Female

Humans

Intestinal Mucosa

Intestine, Small

Male

Mucositis

Patient Selection

Reference Values

Sucrose

A novel non-invasive biomarker for assessment of small intestinal mucositis in children with cancer undergoing chemotherapy.

Journal Article

Publication