Research to develop artificial salivary glands to facilitate swallowing for throat cancer patients has brought a Delaware health system’s cancer research center a $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.
Throat cancer patients receiving radiation therapy can suffer from a lack of saliva that prevents them from swallowing properly and from enjoying beverages and foods, according to Dr. Robert Witt, the chief of the Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Oncology Clinic at the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center at Christiana Cares Health System and the chief scientist-principal investigator, according to a statement from the hospital. It can also affect their speech.
The four-year project also includes researchers from the Center for Translational Cancer Research, a collaborative that includes the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center at Christiana Care, the University of Delaware, A.I. duPont Children’s Hospital and the Delaware Biotechnology Institute, according to a statement from the hospital.
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The goal of researchers is to cultivate new water and enzyme-producing cells from the damaged cells of patients that can be reimplanted into the affected area. This is the way it works. Salivary acinar cells that build the salivary glands and manage water and enzyme production are isolated. The cells are stimulated with neurotransmitters that help them make water and enzymes. Researchers encase the cells in hyaluronic acid to foster growth. The new cells are reimplanted into the patient’s damaged salivary glands when the radiation treatment is ended, according to the statement.
The treatment would serve an unmet need. More than 25,000 new throat cancer cases are diagnosed each year, according to the National Cancer Institute’s website. About 40,000 people suffer from Xerostomia, a condition that can result from radiation treatment for head and neck cancer patients.
