Recent progress in protecting salivary gland function after radiotherapy for patients with head and neck cancers

Radiation-induced salivary glands damage is one of the most frequent complications of head and neck cancers after radiation therapy. It leads to a series of symptoms which severely affect the quality of life, such as soreness of mouth, difficult talking, dysphagia and so on. Therefore, it is important to protect the function of salivary glands. In this review, relevant approaches to protecting the function of salivary glands after receiving the radiotherapy are discussed from several aspects, such as radioprotective drugs, radiotherapy technology molecular biology. (authors)