www.ijbcp.com International Journal of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology | November-December 2013 | Vol 2 | Issue 6 Page 735 IJBCP International Journal of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology Print ISSN: 2319-2003 | Online ISSN: 2279-0780 Research Article Role of free radical scavengers in oral malignancies treated with radiotherapy Virendra Kushwaha 1 , Kamal Sahani 2 , Varun Sharma 1,4 *, Shaheen Saeed 1 , Santosh Kumar Barman 3 INTRODUCTION Incidence of cancer of oral cavity is increasing worldwide. Cancer of oral cavity is one of the most common malignancies in Indian subcontinent. Smoking, use of alcohol, smokeless tobacco products, and HPV infections are the major risk factors for oral cavity cancer, with smoking and alcohol having synergistic effects. 1,2 Early cancers (stage I and stage II) of the lip and oral cavity are highly curable by surgery or by radiation therapy. 3 Most patients with stage III or stage IV tumors are candidates for treatment by a combination of surgery and radiation therapy. 4 So radiotherapy is the mainstay of treatment of cancers of oral cavity along with surgery. Free radicals or reactive oxygen species (ROS) are generated during radiotherapy which besides killing the tumor cells may damage the healthy cells also. 5 These ROS cause lipid-peroxidation of plasma membrane and cell organelles, inactivation of enzymes, de- polymerization of polysaccharides & DNA damage that eventually cause cell death. There are some antioxidant defence in biological systems, non-enzymatic (beta carotene; vitamins- C, E; glutathione etc.) as well as enzymatic (Superoxide dismutase SOD; catalase; ABSTRACT Background: Radiotherapy has an important role in treatment of oral cancer, but it causes some deleterious effect on healthy cells. Radiation produces free radicals which cause lipo-peroxidation, alteration of protein, and DNA damage, and eventually cell death. This study is designed to evaluate protective role of antioxidants in oral malignancies treated with radiotherapy. Methods: This study is conducted in patients of oral cancer treated with radiotherapy. Patients were divided into two groups, control (n=7) and test (n=9). Patients in control group treated with radiotherapy alone and in test group were supplemented with oral antioxidants throughout the radiotherapy course. Pre and post radiotherapy levels of MDA, SOD and Glutathione reductase were measured in blood and cancerous tissue in both groups and statistically compared. TNM staging before and after radiotherapy and side effects of radiotherapy were also compared in both groups. Results: On statistical comparison of mean difference values of MDA, SOD & GR of control v/s test group, it was noticed that there was a significant reduction in MDA (p<0.05) and significant increase in GR levels (p<0.05) but non significant increase in SOD levels (p>0.05) in test group in comparison to control group for both blood and tissue levels. TNM status of patients improved significantly after radiotherapy in test group. Comparison of side effects between both groups indicated that there was reduction in side effects in test group after radiotherapy. Conclusion: These findings indicated the protective role of antioxidants against free radicals produced in oral malignancies treated with radiotherapy. Keywords: Free radical scavengers, Malonyldialdehyde (MDA), Superoxide dismutase (SOD), Glutathione reductase (GR), Radiotherapy doi: 10.5455/2319-2003.ijbcp20131212 1 Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 2 Department of Radiotherapy, JK Cancer Institute, 3 Department of Community Medicine, GSVM Medical College, Kanpur, UP, India 4 Senior Research Scientist, Clinical Pharmacology Unit, Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd., Noida, UP, India Received: 31 August 2013 Accepted: 14 September 2013 *Correspondence to: Dr. Varun Sharma, Email: varun.sharma2003@yahoo.com; DrVarun.Sharma@ranbaxy.com © 2013 Kushwaha V et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non- Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non- commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.