Salivary Gland Transfer...

never heard of it but it

never heard of it but it sounds like a wonderful option that should be given to all patients.

dj

wish my husband would have had that option to!!

We are also Canadian .. Myy Husband just finished treatments August 2oth.. was stage 4 a had 35 radiation treatments and 3 cysplatin  chemos.. still unable to eat having shakes.. his taste for food is nil.. really do not understand why this SGT wouldnt be offered.. of course he was misdiagnosed for over a year..so I guess that would be expecting too much.. you have to be such an advocate to be certain .

 

JC F said:

Same date as me...

...I finished 35 rads and 3 cisplatins on Aug. 20th also. Also have zero taste of food and have been using a peg tube for weeks but can now swallow the Ensure and Boost but they taste horrible. I know it's a slow process recovering taste buds, that's why I wish I had known about this procedure beforehand.

shakes

Hey JCF

Ny hubby too hates ensure or boost or any of those .. ive gotten around that by making up my own shakes for him using full fat icecream.. protein powder.. full fat greek yougurt. and usually soda water.. i sometimes add fruits or an avacado.. hemp oil ( which has lots of fat 2 tbsp 250 calories!) ..  he drinks them a lot better for me that the other. He does not have a peg.. trying to keep his weight stable now as he has lost 35 lbs... He sees the Oncologist ( Chemo) next week ....i am goin to inquire about why they wouldnt have offered that procedure.. hopefully they will offer it to future patients! one can only hope..

Seems to me that there are a

couple of people on here who had it done.....nobody ever mentioned it to me, either......and of course I was ignorant of any possibilities of that option when I started treatment.  I'd love to have one fully operational saliva gland now.

p

That sounds like a marvellous

That sounds like a marvellous thing... and this was the first time I'd heard of it!

I'm with you Frannie - I think the xerostomia is such a **** they say it might improve.... I'm not holding my breath! Mind you, it might not have helped me, because I had radio all around my head and neck front and back, both sides, from  my cheeks down to my shoulders...

Searched

Searched http://clinicaltrials.gov for "submandibular gland transfer". This subject is poorly trialed and I could not find any results from a single phase III trial.

After reading through the data, it got me thinking more deeply about doing this.

Many of us do not have any surgery before doing rads or chemo/rads. In these cases what is the potential benefit from the risks and costs of the surgery just to do this procedure? When you look at all the things that can go potentially wrong with surgeries, my vote is suffering dry mouth is less a problem than some side effect from the surgery.

For those who have surgery, some have just the neck nodes areas dissected and there is no surgery in the gland area. Same issue as first, is the potential benefit justify the risks and costs of doing the surgery in the secondary area.

For those who have surgery in the oral cavity such as tonsils, is it worth risks and costs to move this gland? Maybe, maybe not. The concern I have is what happens if there are micro cancer cells hiding there? Then you move the cancerous gland to an area NOT being hit by rads? Sounds like a big mistake.

If the relocated gland still receives some rads as is done for most, then what are you actually saving? A lower dose is painted in a broad area to kill any loose cancers while causing minimal tissue damange.

There seems insufficient medical studies to prove this helps and under what specific conditions. What would make a bigger difference is get educated on the radiation process and prod your RO to make sure the radiation map addresses your concerns over parotid gland preservation.

For those who got this far, I had a few discussions with my RO about ensuring the map did as much to minimize long term damage. Specifically, I asked about the parotid glands. When asked about sparing them from rads, he made the statement that grays are spread all around the area and adjusted to areas where the identified cancers are detected. But the entire area is painted/dosed with a lesser amount (60gy maybe) to ensure all cancer is killed off.

If the dosimetrist is careful in creating the map and contouring as best possible to miminize rads to the parotid glands that may do as well as any surgery.

Who knows, just babbling as usual.

Responsible Party:	Radiation Therapy Oncology Group
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:	NCT00068237     History of Changes
Other Study ID Numbers:	RTOG-0244, CDR0000287213
Study First Received:	September 10, 2003
Results First Received:	October 29, 2013
Last Updated:	February 5, 2014
Health Authority:	United States: Federal Government   http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/results/NCT00068237?term=submandibular+gland+transfer&rank=3&sect=X4370156#othr

donfoo said:

Searched

Searched http://clinicaltrials.gov for "submandibular gland transfer". This subject is poorly trialed and I could not find any results from a single phase III trial.

After reading through the data, it got me thinking more deeply about doing this.

Many of us do not have any surgery before doing rads or chemo/rads. In these cases what is the potential benefit from the risks and costs of the surgery just to do this procedure? When you look at all the things that can go potentially wrong with surgeries, my vote is suffering dry mouth is less a problem than some side effect from the surgery.

For those who have surgery, some have just the neck nodes areas dissected and there is no surgery in the gland area. Same issue as first, is the potential benefit justify the risks and costs of doing the surgery in the secondary area.

For those who have surgery in the oral cavity such as tonsils, is it worth risks and costs to move this gland? Maybe, maybe not. The concern I have is what happens if there are micro cancer cells hiding there? Then you move the cancerous gland to an area NOT being hit by rads? Sounds like a big mistake.

If the relocated gland still receives some rads as is done for most, then what are you actually saving? A lower dose is painted in a broad area to kill any loose cancers while causing minimal tissue damange.

There seems insufficient medical studies to prove this helps and under what specific conditions. What would make a bigger difference is get educated on the radiation process and prod your RO to make sure the radiation map addresses your concerns over parotid gland preservation.

For those who got this far, I had a few discussions with my RO about ensuring the map did as much to minimize long term damage. Specifically, I asked about the parotid glands. When asked about sparing them from rads, he made the statement that grays are spread all around the area and adjusted to areas where the identified cancers are detected. But the entire area is painted/dosed with a lesser amount (60gy maybe) to ensure all cancer is killed off.

If the dosimetrist is careful in creating the map and contouring as best possible to miminize rads to the parotid glands that may do as well as any surgery.

Who knows, just babbling as usual.

Responsible Party:	Radiation Therapy Oncology Group
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:	NCT00068237     History of Changes
Other Study ID Numbers:	RTOG-0244, CDR0000287213
Study First Received:	September 10, 2003
Results First Received:	October 29, 2013
Last Updated:	February 5, 2014
Health Authority:	United States: Federal Government   http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/results/NCT00068237?term=submandibular+gland+transfer&rank=3&sect=X4370156#othr

Such Short Memories

It may have been me who you're referring to.  As far as I know it has only been discussed in my case and then another who asked his doctor to call mine to see if he would qualify.

 

My cancer was not SCC, but MEC.  Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma.  It was a base of tongue tumor that had to be removed via TORS, the robot arm.  My lymph node on the right side of my neck was clearly visible so I ended up with a radical right neck dissection.  During the operation my surgeon removed my right parotid salivary gland because it would have been lost with rads anyway.  He then moved my left gland to the center of my chin and instructed the radiation team to avoid that area.

 

It worked quite well.  My left gland is working overtime to make up for the other one.  Still I get a dry mouth during the night.  For some reason I can only sleep on my back and then my mouth opens and the sahara desert moves in.  That wakes me up several times during the night but at least I still have saliva.  And yes, my taste buds came back pretty quick too.  With my cancer I didn't need chemo.  It seems to have no effect on it so surgery and rads was all I got for treatment.

 

Feel free to contact me if you need more details.  labiker@hotmail.com

 

Tom

CivilMatt said:

yes

JC F,

I remembered, it was Tom.

Matt

Glad it worked Tom.

Any others that had saliva gland transfer
It appears the University of Nevada, University of California - San Diego, University of California - San Francisco, and Johns Hopkins are offering this procedure. Perhaps there are other institutions that are offering this as well.

Have not seen other posts on this procedure in the forum....Checking to see if anyone else had submandibular gland transfer and how were the results.

-Ray