Prevention of Radiotherapy Induced Xerostomia by Intraductal Administration of N-Acetyl Cysteinein Patients with Oropharyngeal Malignancies: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Oropharyangeal cancer constitutes a substantial proportion of head and neck cancers and is prevalent worldwide including India. Radiotherapy-induced xerostomia (RIX) occurs in around 70 percent of the cases undergoing radiation therapy. The symptoms affect the quality of life of the patients considerably and no therapy has been proven reasonably effective to prevent or treat the complication. The complications arise due to proximity of the salivary glands to the target affected tissue. Evidence suggests that such damage occurs due to free radicals generated by radiotherapy which on one hand kills the tumor tissues while also collaterally damaging the salivary glands.

This study will use a well-established antioxidant which is considered safe i.e. N-Acetyl cysteine (NAC). It has free radical scavenging property to prevent the free radical induced injury to salivary glands. The local use of NAC will likely prevent this collateral damage in disease free glands. If the results are gained as expected, the therapy would stand to be safe, effective and cheap as a preventive measure against RIX.