Toward salivary gland stem cell regeneration

Head and neck cancer is the sixth most common cancer worldwide, resulting in ~ 640,000 cases. Most of these patients have irreversible damage to their salivary glands due to irradiation therapy, which typically leads to significant decrease in quality of life. In the last 2 decades, several strategies have been suggested to overcome this problem; however, no biologically based treatments are available. In the past few years, the authors of the present article and other researchers have focused on a new strategy of re-implantation of autologous salivary gland cells into the residual irradiated salivary glands. This article reviews the current prospective of the irradiation-induced salivary gland impairment mechanisms and the envisioned therapeutic modalities based on stem cell therapy.