Twenty-year analysis of photobiomodulation clinical studies for oral mucositis: a scoping review.

Objective: Our objective was to review the first 20 years of photobiomodulation (PBM) clinical studies for oral mucositis (OM) mitigation.

Study Design: A scoping review screened controlled clinical studies. The PBM devices, protocols, and clinical outcomes were analyzed.

Results: Seventy-five studies met the inclusion criteria. The first study dated from 1992, and the term "PBM" was first published in 2017. Public services, placebo-controlled randomized trials, and patients with head and neck chemoradiation were predominant among included studies. Prophylactic red intraoral laser protocols were mostly used. Comparing the outcomes of all protocols was unfeasible due to missing treatment parameters and nonhomogeneous measurements.

Conclusions: The main barrier to optimizing clinical protocols of PBM for OM was the lack of standardization in clinical studies. Although PBM use is now globally present in oncology settings and generally marked by good outcomes reported, additional randomized clinical trials with well-described methods are necessary.