the patient underwent a professional oral hygiene session before starting chemotherapy, as part of the routine pre-transplant procedure. Patients then received oral hygiene instructions.

probing pocket depth (PPD) was measured as the distance from the free gingival margin to the bottom of the pocket by inserting a periodontal probe parallel to the longitudinal axis of the tooth using a periodontal probe (UNC 15, Hu-Friedy, Chicago, IL, USA) and a calibrated pressure of 0.3 N. All measurements were rounded to the nearest millimetre.

Full Mouth Bleeding Score (FMBS) was measured dichotomously after periodontal probing. The mean bleeding score was indicated as percentage of sites detected positive for bleeding on the total number of sites

Full Mouth Plaque Score (FMPS) was assessed the presence or absence of plaque on each tooth surface. The presence of plaque was evaluated as 1, while the absence as 0, on 6 sites per tooth (distobuccal, buccal, mesiobuccal, distolingual, lingual, mesiolingual). Mean plaque score was indicated as percentage of sites found positive for the presence of plaque on the total number of sites

Calculus Index was measured using a probe and considering supragingival and subgingival calculus separately, with score 0 assigned in the absence of calculus and score 3 assigned to supragingival calculus exceeding two-thirds of the crown and/or continuous bands of subgingival calculus

Presence of mucositis was evaluated as the presence of mucosal erythema or ulceration for 8 oral sites and assigning a score from 0 (normal oral mucosa) to 5 (>3 sites of ulceration).