Abstract:
Oral mucositis often occurs in head and
neck cancer (HNC) patients during treatment and can
make eating difficult because of pain and swallowing
problems. A recent meta-analysis reported oral mucositis
in approximately 94% of HNC patients receiving
radiotherapy, with 37% experiencing severe mucositis. In
Sri Lanka, cancers of the lip, tongue and mouth
accounted for 18.8% of reported cancers among males
and 4.1% among females in 2022. Nutritional needs may
change according to mucositis severity, treatment related
symptoms, dietary restrictions and individual
preferences. This paper proposes an AI assisted
conceptual framework for personalized nutritional
recommendation for HNC patients with oral mucositis.
The framework integrates clinical information,
nutritional requirements, patient reported symptoms,
dietary preferences and mucositis severity to support
individualized meal recommendations. Its main
components include patient data collection, mucositis
assessment, nutritional requirement estimation, meal
recommendation, patient feedback and healthcare
professional supervision. The proposed framework was
developed using findings from the literature and initial
interviews with 16 patients, 4 doctors, and 5 nurses. This
study mainly focuses on identifying system requirements
and developing the conceptual framework. System
implementation, AI model training and clinical validation
are considered future work. Future evaluation will focus
on accuracy, safety, usability and clinical relevance.
