5-asa Is No Use for Prevention of Diarrhea Due to Acute Radiation Enteritis

Acute radiation enteritis is a common side effect of radiation of abdominal or pelvic malignancies, which often occurs during or shortly after radiation therapy. Though the mechanisms of diarrhea after pelvic radiotherapy are incompletely understood, it was suggested that inflammation of the intestinal mucosa was an important pathophysiological factor. 5-aminosalicylate (5-ASA) as an antiinflammatory drug has been tried for prevention of acute radiation enteritis in several studies. However, it was controversial that whether the use of 5-ASA was associated with a decrease in the incidence of diarrhea due to radiation therapy. To our best knowledge, this is the first quantitative review of the published data regarding clinical efficacy of 5-ASA for prevention of diarrhea due to radiation therapy in the literature. Materials and methods