{"doi":"10.1016/j.ctro.2020.05.014","title":"The impact of tongue-deviating and tongue-depressing oral stents on long-term radiation-associated symptoms in oropharyngeal cancer survivors","abstract":"OBJECTIVES: To evaluate whether the use of oral stents during intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for oropharyngeal cancer (OPC) is associated with long-term patient reported symptoms. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data was obtained from a prospective observational study of disease-free head and neck cancer survivors. Radiation-associated patient reported symptoms were assessed using the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory Head and Neck module (MDASI-HN). Scores of ≥5 (11-point Likert scale, 0-10) were considered moderate/severe. Stratification was performed regarding IMRT volume (uni- versus bilateral neck) and stent utilization, with non-parametric analyses between groups. RESULTS: 462 OPC survivors formed the cohort (54% tonsil, 46% base of tongue primaries). A tongue-deviating stent was used in 17%, tongue-depressing stent in 46%, and no stent in 37%. Median prescribed dose to the high dose clinical target volume was 66.0 Gy. Median follow-up from RT to MDASI-HN assessment was 68 months. Twenty percent had received unilateral neck RT (all had tonsil primaries), in whom a significant improvement in the proportion of patients with moderate/severe taste impairment (2% vs. 15%, p = 0.047) and lack of appetite (0% vs. 9%, p = 0.019) was associated with the use of tongue-deviating stents compared to no oral stent. In those who had received bilateral neck RT, a significant improvement in the proportion of patients with moderate/severe difficulty swallowing/chewing was associated with use of a tongue-depressing stent (21% vs. 31% without oral stent, p = 0.013). CONCLUSION: Disease-site specific select use of oral stents during IMRT was associated with reduced long-term patient reported symptoms in OPC survivors.","journal":"Clinical and Translational Radiation Oncology","year":2020,"id":81192,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":14,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.8754,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":421276,"name":"I. Perez-Martinez","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":351182,"name":"Abdallah Mohamed","orcid":"0000-0003-2064-7613","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":421277,"name":"S. Rock","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":419792,"name":"Nimit Bajaj","orcid":"0000-0002-2131-5007","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":420178,"name":"T.S. Deshpande","orcid":"0000-0003-3066-8530","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":404501,"name":"Mohamed Zaid","orcid":"0000-0002-8615-2456","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":299194,"name":"Adam S. Garden","orcid":"0000-0001-7926-2641","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":420179,"name":"Ryan P. Goepfert","orcid":"0000-0002-3291-841X","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":420180,"name":"Richard C. Cardoso","orcid":"0000-0001-6749-682X","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":244404,"name":"Renata Ferrarotto","orcid":"0000-0002-3561-215X","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":372233,"name":"Jay P. Reddy","orcid":"0000-0001-9378-4585","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":351187,"name":"Jack Phan","orcid":"0000-0001-5977-6004","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":351188,"name":"William H. Morrison","orcid":"0000-0002-9546-0805","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":32353,"name":"David I. Rosenthal","orcid":"0000-0001-7124-7447","position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":227744,"name":"Eugene J. Koay","orcid":"0000-0001-7675-3461","position":15,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":348525,"name":"Steven J. Frank","orcid":"0000-0001-6517-7884","position":16,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":295555,"name":"Clifton D. Fuller","orcid":"0000-0002-5264-3994","position":17,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":351189,"name":"G. Brandon Gunn","orcid":"0000-0001-8197-0380","position":18,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":420177,"name":"Sonja Stieb","orcid":"0000-0002-4360-2277","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":33,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T21:52:34.401799Z","pmid":"32642562","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}