Effectiveness of photobiomodulation therapy in radiation dermatitis: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effectiveness of photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT) in the prevention and treatment of radiation dermatitis (RD). METHODS: A systematic review was conducted using seven databases and the gray literature. We performed a meta-analysis to summarize the effect sizes of response rates (RRs). RESULTS: We included seven clinical trials. Breast cancer patients receiving PBMT developed more grade 1 RD than the control group (RR 1.55, 95 % CI 1.14-2.10, I2 = 51 %). PBMT appears to prevent RD grade 2 (RR 0.33, 95 % CI 0.09-1.23, I2 = 85 %) and RD grade 3 (RR 0.21, 95 % CI 0.05-0.94, I2 = 0%) with very low certainty of evidence. CONCLUSIONS: There is very low certainty of evidence that PBMT was effective in the prevention of RD. However, PBMT showed a significant effect to prevent grade 3 RD in breast cancer patients. Thus, further randomized clinical trials are required to confirm the promising effect of PBMT in RD.