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Smell and taste function in childhood cancer patients: a feasibility study

PURPOSE: Chemotherapy can affect smell and taste function. This has never been investigated in childhood cancer patients during chemotherapy. The objective of this study was to determine whether psychophysical smell and taste tests are suitable for children with cancer. Taste and smell function, fun...

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Autores principales: van den Brink, Mirjam, IJpma, Irene, van Belkom, Britt, Fiocco, Marta, Havermans, Remco C., Tissing, Wim J. E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7843543/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32743785
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00520-020-05650-3
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author van den Brink, Mirjam
IJpma, Irene
van Belkom, Britt
Fiocco, Marta
Havermans, Remco C.
Tissing, Wim J. E.
author_facet van den Brink, Mirjam
IJpma, Irene
van Belkom, Britt
Fiocco, Marta
Havermans, Remco C.
Tissing, Wim J. E.
author_sort van den Brink, Mirjam
collection PubMed
description PURPOSE: Chemotherapy can affect smell and taste function. This has never been investigated in childhood cancer patients during chemotherapy. The objective of this study was to determine whether psychophysical smell and taste tests are suitable for children with cancer. Taste and smell function, fungiform papillae density, and eating behavior were measured before (T1) and after (T2) a cycle of chemotherapy and compared with healthy controls. METHODS: Thirty-one childhood cancer patients treated for a hematological, solid, or brain malignancy (median age 12 years, 16 girls), and 24 healthy controls (median age: 11 years, 10 girls) participated. Smell function was measured using Sniffin’ Sticks, including a threshold, discrimination, and identification test. Taste Strips were used to determine recognition thresholds for sweet, sour, salty, and bitter taste. Papillae density was investigated by counting the fungiform papillae of the anterior tongue. Eating behavior was assessed using the Behavioral Pediatrics Feeding Assessment Scale (BPFAS). RESULTS: Smell and taste function could be investigated in more than 90% of the patients, while fungiform papillae density could be determined in 61% of the patients. A significant difference in smell threshold was found between patients and controls (p = 0.001), showing lower thresholds in patients. In patients, sweet taste (p < 0.001), bitter taste (p = 0.028), and total taste function (p = 0.004) were significantly different after a cycle of chemotherapy, with higher scores at T2. CONCLUSION: The assessment of smell, taste, and fungiform papillae density is feasible in children with cancer. Results of the current study suggest that smell and taste sensitivity increased in children with cancer.
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spelling pubmed-78435432021-02-04 Smell and taste function in childhood cancer patients: a feasibility study van den Brink, Mirjam IJpma, Irene van Belkom, Britt Fiocco, Marta Havermans, Remco C. Tissing, Wim J. E. Support Care Cancer Original Article PURPOSE: Chemotherapy can affect smell and taste function. This has never been investigated in childhood cancer patients during chemotherapy. The objective of this study was to determine whether psychophysical smell and taste tests are suitable for children with cancer. Taste and smell function, fungiform papillae density, and eating behavior were measured before (T1) and after (T2) a cycle of chemotherapy and compared with healthy controls. METHODS: Thirty-one childhood cancer patients treated for a hematological, solid, or brain malignancy (median age 12 years, 16 girls), and 24 healthy controls (median age: 11 years, 10 girls) participated. Smell function was measured using Sniffin’ Sticks, including a threshold, discrimination, and identification test. Taste Strips were used to determine recognition thresholds for sweet, sour, salty, and bitter taste. Papillae density was investigated by counting the fungiform papillae of the anterior tongue. Eating behavior was assessed using the Behavioral Pediatrics Feeding Assessment Scale (BPFAS). RESULTS: Smell and taste function could be investigated in more than 90% of the patients, while fungiform papillae density could be determined in 61% of the patients. A significant difference in smell threshold was found between patients and controls (p = 0.001), showing lower thresholds in patients. In patients, sweet taste (p < 0.001), bitter taste (p = 0.028), and total taste function (p = 0.004) were significantly different after a cycle of chemotherapy, with higher scores at T2. CONCLUSION: The assessment of smell, taste, and fungiform papillae density is feasible in children with cancer. Results of the current study suggest that smell and taste sensitivity increased in children with cancer. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2020-08-02 2021 /pmc/articles/PMC7843543/ /pubmed/32743785 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00520-020-05650-3 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Original Article
van den Brink, Mirjam
IJpma, Irene
van Belkom, Britt
Fiocco, Marta
Havermans, Remco C.
Tissing, Wim J. E.
Smell and taste function in childhood cancer patients: a feasibility study
title Smell and taste function in childhood cancer patients: a feasibility study
title_full Smell and taste function in childhood cancer patients: a feasibility study
title_fullStr Smell and taste function in childhood cancer patients: a feasibility study
title_full_unstemmed Smell and taste function in childhood cancer patients: a feasibility study
title_short Smell and taste function in childhood cancer patients: a feasibility study
title_sort smell and taste function in childhood cancer patients: a feasibility study
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7843543/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32743785
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00520-020-05650-3
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