Researchers Study Artificial Salivary Glands

Grant Awarded to Further Research on Artificial Salivary Glands

The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, part of the National Institutes of Health, has funded a $2.5 million grant to support research on developing artificial salivary glands with the hopes of creating new treatments for xerostomia. A collaborative team from the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center in Newark, Del, and the Center for Translational Cancer Research at the University of Delaware, also in Newark, will conduct the research.

According to Robert Witt, MD, primary investigator and chief of the Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Oncology Clinic at the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center, the purpose of the 4-year initiative is to find effective treatment for cancer-related xerostomia. “Our goal is to return the function of the patient’s salivary glands and reduce human suffering,” noted Witt, referring to the fact that radiation therapy used to treat head and neck cancer often destroys salivary glands.

The research will focus on growing salivary cells, collected from patients before they begin radiation therapy, that will be able to create saliva once they are reimplanted into patients’ damaged salivary glands after cancer treatment is complete. The team has already discovered a laboratory technique to isolate salivary ancinar cells—the primary constituent in salivary glands.