Intensity-modulated radiation therapy and xerostomia.

Conformal radiation with intensity-modulated radiation therapy, IMRT, is a radiation technique that potentially can minimize the dose to salivary glands and thereby decrease the incidence of xerostomia. Precise target determination and delineation is most important when using salivary gland-sparing techniques of IMRT. The reduction of xerostomia may be achieved by sparing the salivary glands on the noninvolved oral cavity and keeping the mean parotid gland dose of < 26-30 Gy if the treatment of disease is not compromised and parotid function preservation is desired.