Zinc supplementation to improve mucositis and dermatitis in patients after radiotherapy for head-and-neck cancers: a double-blind, randomized study.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

To determine whether zinc supplementation can accelerate the healing of mucositis and dermatitis after radiotherapy.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 50 patients taking part.

PubMed indexes the participants as middle-aged adults, both men and women.

In this double-blind study, patients were placed into two randomized groups (experimental and control) of 50 patients each.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Blinding on both sides kept the patients and researchers unaware of who received Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc could be set against what happens without it.

The groups were homogeneous with respect to medical history, tumor characteristics, and therapeutic details.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Head and Neck Neoplasms, Mucositis, Radiation Injuries, Radiodermatitis, Stomatitis and Zinc.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 50 patients.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 7 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2006 (International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, all human trials.