Sparing of Contralateral Major Salivary Glands Has a Significant Effect on Oral Health in Patients Treated with Radical Radiotherapy of Head and Neck Tumors

Abstract

The conscious arrangement of irradiation portals in order to spare contralateral major salivary glands in patients with radical radiotherapy of ENT tumors has a significant influence on the oral environment: the stimulated saliva flow is higher, the buffer capacity retains the baseline value, the saliva pH remains basic, and the colonisation with Streptococcus mutans is reduced.

Acute Toxicity of Adjuvant Radiotherapy in Locally Advanced Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma

“…Although radiation doses are similar, radiation fields differ considerably between patients with head and neck cancers and patients with DTC. In particular, marked toxicity of the mucosa of the mouth and impairment of salivary function are frequent in patients with oropharyngeal tumors [2]. This may account for the fact that the observed toxicities in the present study of radiotherapy in DTC are somewhat lower than the experiences from head and neck series.…”

Longitudinal Assessment of Parotid Function in Patients Receiving Tomotherapy for Head-and-Neck Cancer

“…Conventional head-and-neck (H&N) radiotherapy (RT) is associated with high doses to the major salivary glands resulting in xerostomia as major distressing complication, changes of taste, dental decay, oral infections, dysphagia, nutritional deficiencies, and impaired social activity [3,4]. Parotid glands are responsible for ± 65% of the total amount of saliva.…”

Investigations on Parotid Gland Recovery after IMRT in Head and Neck Tumor Patients

“…The latter is driven by inverse planning approaches and computerized optimization modules which require certain input data [2,5,10,12,13,18,19,29,30,34,35]. Parotid gland sparing is one main motivation for IMRT in the head-and-neck region.…”