Browsing: Salivary Gland Cancer

Cancer treatments can cause several changes to your body. There are some side effects of each type of cancer treatment, which different people experience differently. As you prepare yourself for cancer treatment, you may benefit from these coping strategies.

Chemotherapy is a widely used treatment for cancer. The term ‘chemotherapy’ refers to the drugs that prevent cancer cells from dividing and growing. It works by killing the cells that divide in an uncontrolled way.

Most salivary gland cancers are benign and do not spread to other body parts, but some salivary gland cancers become cancerous and spread to other body parts and can be lethal. Salivary gland cancer involves different types of surgery, including neck dissection, parotidectomy, submandibular or sublingual gland excision, etc. All these surgeries are performed carefully to avoid any serious damage to the nearby organs.

Chemotherapy is a type of therapy or a treatment for cancer that uses drugs to kill cancer cells. It works by stopping or slowing the growth of tumour cells, which grow and divide very quickly. Chemotherapy sometimes can also be given before radiotherapy to shrink the tumour and to make the radiotherapy more effective. The complications of chemotherapy usually depend on the type and dose of drugs and how it is administered.

Salivary gland tumors begin in the salivary glands. These salivary glands are found in neck, mouth or throat regions. When malignant cancer cells develop in the form of tissues on salivary glands, it marks the beginning of salivary gland cancer. It used to be a rare cancer earlier, but si now becoming more common.

Scientists don’t yet know all of the changes that occur in DNA which result in salivary gland cancer, but recent research has identified some gene changes that are often found in these types of cancers. It is found that salivary gland cancer does not generally run in families.

A research led by Scientists at Showa University School of Dentistry in Tokyo and the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research have grown three-dimensional salivary gland tissue for the first time and implanted them into mice. This is believed to change paradigm of treating diseases and conditions such as dry mouth and salivary gland cancer.