Objectives

Radiation therapy induces and/or exacerbates mycotic infection. The purpose of the present work was to determine the exis-tence of mycological changes in the oral cavity in patients (pts) treated by radiotherapy because of head and neck neoplasms, and to determine the existence of dependence between the number of lymphocytes and neutrocytes and the increase in the number of Candida albicans.

Materials and method

The material from the oral cavity was taken from 50 pts with head and neck neoplasms treated at the Wielkopolskie Centrum Onkologii (Great Poland Cancer Centre) in Poznań. Patients received radiotherapy in a dose of 6 000 – 7 000 cGy over a period of 6 – 7 weeks. The control group consisted of 20 pts treated at the same hospital for cancer other than head and neck cancer. The patients did not receive radiotherapy treatment. In all pts mycological culture was carried out and the condition of immunity was examined on the basis of the total number of lymphocytes (CLL) and the level of neutrocytes.

Results

The data showed that after treatment the number of pts with positive results of the mycologically cultured examinations on Candida ID increased. At the same time a decrease in CLL was observed. After radiotherapy CLL per 1 mm³ was less than 1000, and the number of Candida more then 5, compared with 4% of pts before radiotherapy. The level of neutrocytes in non of the pts decreased to less than 2 000 per 1 mm³.

Conclusion

Our study suggess that radiotherapy may have an effect on the development of mycological infection, among other things, through the decreace in immunity.