Predictive biomarkers of radiotherapy- related dermatitis, xerostomia, mucositis and dysphagia in head and neck cancer: A systematic review

This review provides an overview of the research landscape, highlights research gaps and provides recommendations for future research directions. We identified several potential biomarkers, particularly in DNA repair pathways, that align with current understanding of radiation-induced cell damage. However, the overall data quality was poor, with key clinical variables often missing. Overall, rigorous standardization of reporting, validation studies and multi-center collaborations to increase study power and sample sizes are necessary to build high-level evidence for clinical application.