Objective This study aimed to investigate the effects of vitamin B12 mixed oral liquid in the treatment of radiation-induced esophagitis in patients with esophageal cancer.Methods Seventy-five patients with esophageal cancer who met the enrollment criteria were randomly divided into the vitamin B12 mixed oral liquid group（39 patients in the study group） and the gentamicin mixed oral liquid group（36 patients in the control group）. The effects of the two treatment methods on esophagitis grading, pain degree, body weight loss, and Karnofsky performance status（KPS） score in patients with radiation esophagitis were observed.Results In the control group, grade 1 radiation esophagitis accounted for 27.8% of the total patients, grade 2 accounted for 41.7%, and grades 3 and 4 accounted for 30.6%. In the vitamin B12 treatment group, grade 1 radiation esophagitis accounted for 66.7% of the total patients, grade 2 accounted for 25.6%, and grades 3 and 4 accounted for 7.7%; there was a significant difference between the vitamin B12 treatment group and control group（P ＜ 0.01）. Similarly, pain caused by radiation esophagitis was significantly improved in the vitamin B12 group compared with the control group（P ＜ 0.05）. After treatment, the average weight loss of the control group was（2.18 ± 0.36） kg, while that of the vitamin B12 treatment group was（0.90 ± 0.43） kg（P ＜ 0.05）. The KPS scores of the vitamin B12 group were higher than those of the control group, which were 86.2 ± 1.2 and 85.6 ± 1.5, respectively, but there was no statistical difference（P ＞ 0.05）.Conclusion Vitamin B12 mixed oral liquid can effectively reduce the severity of radiation esophagitis, relieve pain, improve patients’ quality of life, and increase treatment compliance.
展开▼
