Recently, Wouter Vogel, a radiation oncologist from the Netherlands, discovered an unknown set of salivary glands in the neck while investigating the problems of digestion, speech, and oral infections caused by damage to the salivary glands after radiotherapy for human head and neck, brain cancer. This discovery was officially published on "Radiotherapy & Oncology" on October 16.
So far only three large salivary glands have been recorded in anatomical books. In addition, thousands of tiny salivary glands may be scattered throughout the tissues of the throat and oral mucosa. The salivary glands newly discovered by Wouter Vogel’s team are located on the cartilage of the eustachian tube swelling, so researchers temporarily call them eustachian tube salivary gland.
To confirm this latest discovery, his team looked at the results of PSMA PET/CT scans of 100 prostate or urethral gland cancer patients and found that these people had newly discovered glands. Not only that, they also dissected the nasopharynx of two donated human specimens and found that this body part was composed of mucosal glandular tissue and a duct flowing into the nasopharynx.
Wouter Vogel said that when using radiotherapy on the head and neck to treat cancer, doctors can try to avoid irradiating this salivary gland to reduce the side effects caused by radiotherapy. This discovery is of great significance for cancer treatment.
