ArticleBJR open2020
A longitudinal study on parotid and submandibular gland changes assessed by magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasonography in post-radiotherapy nasopharyngeal cancer patients.
Article in BJR open, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Assessment and Prediction of Salivary Gland Function After Head and Neck Radiotherapy: A Systematic Review.Cancer medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Early Salivary Gland Shrinkage Is Associated With an Increased Risk of Acute Xerostomia in Head and Neck Cancer Radiation Therapy.Advances in radiation oncology · 2026Article
- Longitudinal bilateral parotid delta-radiomic kinetics and variance signatures for prediction of late xerostomia following radiotherapy.BMC medical imaging · 2026Article
- Synthetic CT-enabled weekly adaptive radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma: Optimizing plan adaptation triggers through volumetric-dosimetric monitoring.Journal of applied clinical medical physics · 2026Article
- Longitudinal multi-b-value diffusion MRI for the early assessment of radiation-induced parotid injury in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Article
- Parotid preservation or immune protection? The dual dilemma in head and neck cancer radiotherapy.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Multi‑parameter quantitative magnetic resonance imaging in the early assessment of radiation‑induced parotid damage in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma following intensity‑modulated radiotherapy.Oncology letters · 2024Article
- How Effective Is Radiotherapy in the Ultrasonographic Structural Characteristics of the Submandibular Glands?The Eurasian journal of medicine · 2024Article
- Structural network alterations in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma after radiotherapy: A 1-year longitudinal study.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Article
- Research Value of Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy in Alleviating Parotid Gland Function Injury in Patients with Stage N0 Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma from Physical and Dosimetric Aspects.Computational and mathematical methods in medicine · 2022Article
- Current Omics Trends in Personalised Head and Neck Cancer Chemoradiotherapy.Journal of personalized medicine · 2021Review
- Early Experience of Online Adaptive Radiation Therapy for Definitive Radiation of Patients With Head and Neck Cancer.Advances in radiation oncologyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesWith regard to the intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients, this longitudinal study evaluated the radiation-induced changes in the parotid and submandibular glands in terms of gland size, echogenicity and haemodynamic parameters.
methods21 NPC patients treated by IMRT underwent MRI and ultrasound scans before radiotherapy, and at 6, 12, 18 and 24 months after treatment. Parotid and submandibular gland volumes were measured from the MRI images, whereas the parotid echogenicity and haemodynamic parameters including the resistive index, pulsatility index, peak systolic velocity and end diastolic velocity were evaluated by ultrasonography. Trend lines were plotted to show the pattern of changes. The correlations of gland doses and the post-RT changes were also studied.
resultsThe volume of the parotid and submandibular glands demonstrated a significant drop from pre-RT to 6 months post-RT. The parotid gland changed from hyperechoic before RT to either isoechoic or hypoechoic after treatment. The resistive index and pulsatility index decreased from pre-RT to 6 month post-RT, then started to increase at 12 month time interval. Both peak systolic velocity and end diastolic velocity increased after 6 months post-RT then followed a decreasing trend up to 24 months post-RT. There was mild correlation between post-RT gland dose and gland volume, but not with haemodynamic changes.
conclusionsRadiation from IMRT caused shrinkage of parotid and submandibular glands in NPC patients. It also changed the echogenicity and vascular condition of the parotid gland. The most significant changes were observed at 6 months after radiotherapy. ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE: It is the first paper that reports on the longitudinal changes of salivary gland volume, echogenicity and haemodynamic parameters altogether in NPC patients after radiotherapy. The results are useful for the prediction of glandular changes that is associated with xerostomia, which help to provide timely management of the complication when the patients attend follow-up visits.
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Registered trials
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