Nausea · Patients receiving radiotherapy on its own or in addition to chemotherapy to the head and neck region
Amifostine may leads to higher nausea (adverse effect) compared with no treatment/placebo (low certainty).
1 finding from 1 review
Salivary flow rate (stimulated) · Patients receiving radiotherapy on its own or in addition to chemotherapy to the head and neck region
1 finding from 1 review
Speech difficulties (VAS 0-100 mm) · Patients receiving radiotherapy on its own or in addition to chemotherapy to the head and neck region
Pilocarpine led to higher speech difficulties (VAS 0-100 mm) compared with no treatment/placebo; GRADE not reported.
1 finding from 1 review
Salivary flow rate · Patients receiving radiotherapy on its own or in addition to chemotherapy to the head and neck region
Amifostine led to higher salivary flow rate (incidence of > 0.1 g saliva/5 min, unstimulated) compared with no treatment/placebo; GRADE not reported.
1 finding from 1 review
Adverse effects ‐ Sweating · Patients receiving radiotherapy on its own or in addition to chemotherapy to the head and neck region
Pilocarpine may leads to higher sweating (adverse effect) compared with no treatment/placebo (low certainty).
1 finding from 1 review
Adverse events: hypotension · Patients receiving radiotherapy on its own or in addition to chemotherapy to the head and neck region
Amifostine may leads to higher hypotension (adverse effect) compared with no treatment/placebo (low certainty).
1 finding from 1 review
Dysphagia (WHO grade 3+) · Patients receiving radiotherapy on its own or in addition to chemotherapy to the head and neck region
Biperiden plus pilocarpine showed no clear difference in dysphagia (WHO grade 3+) compared with no treatment; GRADE not reported.
1 finding from 1 review
Quality of life (Patient Benefit Questionnaire, 10-point scale) · Patients receiving radiotherapy on its own or in addition to chemotherapy to the head and neck region
It is very uncertain whether amifostine changes quality of life (Patient Benefit Questionnaire, 10-point scale) compared with no treatment/placebo (very low certainty).
1 finding from 1 review
Salivary flow rate (unstimulated) · Patients receiving radiotherapy on its own or in addition to chemotherapy to the head and neck region
1 finding from 1 review
Insufficient evidence, from a single trial of 60 participants, to determine the effect on unstimulated salivary flow rate at the end of RT (Rode 1999; Analysis 2.1)
1 study · 60 participants
GRADE not reported
Dry mouth (xerostomia) · Patients receiving radiotherapy on its own or in addition to chemotherapy to the head and neck region
The review found no eligible studies for this question.
1 finding from 1 review