Quantification of XXXX due to radiotherapy by determining viability and maturation of epithelial cells.

@entity1 @entity3460 @entity33 @entity3136
BACKGROUND: An in-vitro assay has been developed for quantitative assessment of chemotherapy induced @entity3136 . In the present study this method was evaluated for assessment of irradiation @entity33 at a cellular level. METHODS: Ten @entity1 participated in this consecutive study. All @entity1 were treated with conventional fractionated curative postoperative radiotherapy. Prior to, and weekly during, the irradiation course, oral washings were obtained to determine viability of epithelial cells by @entity3460 dye exclusion. Maturation of epithelial cells was assessed from smears (Papanicolaou staining). The viability data were compared with the WHO-score for @entity33 . RESULTS: Epithelial cell viability increased during the first three weeks of radiation (P = 0.04), and was seen earlier than the subjective mucosal changes with the WHO-score. Cell maturity shifted from immature and intermediate to mature (P = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: The cell viability assay can be considered an objective method for following the development of irradiation @entity33 , and seems to be more sensitive during the first three weeks of irradiation than the WHO-scoring method.
