Oral Health Condition and Quality of Life in Children With Leukemia

Among the different types of cancer that most affect children, leukemia is the principal. One of the main treatments for leukemia is chemotherapy. Among the most common side effects of chemotherapy are nausea and/or vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue, alopecia, neuropathy, opportunistic infections, and oral mucositis. It is still necessary to establish which microorganisms are predominant in the oral microbiota of children with leukemia, which factors influence it, what is its relationship with oral mucositis and what is their impact in the quality of life. To better understand the risks of secondary infection, it is important to develop preventive and/or therapeutic strategies to control the side effects of antineoplastic treatment in the mouth that may negatively impact the quality of life, to expose the risk of death as well as raise hospital costs for the care of children with leukemia. Objective: To identify the clinical characteristics of the oral condition, types of microorganisms of the oral microbiota, and quality of life in children/adolescents with acute lymphoid leukemia and acute myeloid leukemia before and during antineoplastic treatment, and compare them with healthy children/adolescent individuals. Methodology: Longitudinal, case-control study, with a convenience sample. The study group, composed of children/adolescent individuals who have a definitive diagnosis of acute lymphoid leukemia or acute myeloid leukemia. The control group, non-syndromic children/adolescents, with no history of cancer, matched by age and gender. The clinical condition of the mouth will be evaluated by means of indexes: dental caries index (dmft index), gingival index (GA), and simplified oral hygiene index. The assessment of the quality of life through the ohip-14 and POS-version14 quality of life questionnaire and microbiological evaluation of saliva through MALDI-TOF analysis. Statistical analysis will be performed through relative risk for cohort study with more than three pair