Dissertation group Rob Coppes

Salivary glands of head and neck cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy are often unavoidably exposed to radiation. The resulting damage impairs the function of salivary gland leading to irreversible dry mouth syndrome (xerostomia), which induces a severe life-long loss of quality of life of the patient. Currently no adequate treatments are available. Salivary gland stem ce…

Radiation treatment plays an important role in the treatment of thoracic tumors 1,2. The efficacy of the treatment however, is limited by the sensitivity of unavoidably co-irradiated healthy tissues 3-9. In thoracic radiotherapy depending on the type, size and location of the tumor, parts of the healthy lung and/or heart are co-irradiated with the tumor causing toxicitie…