Salivary Characteristics among Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Patients with and without Chemotherapy

Objective: The objective of this study was to compare salivary characteristics among nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients with and without chemotherapy before receiving radiotherapy at HoChiMinh city Oncology hospital, Vietnam. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on two groups of nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients before receiving radiotherapy at Ho Chi Minh Oncology Hospital, Vietnam from Jan 2014 to Apr 2014. Group 1 included 13 patients with chemotherapy and group 2 comprised 24 patients without prior treatment. Non-Stimulated and stimulated salivary samples were collected to determine the salivary flow rate, pH and buffering capacity. The saliva-check buffer kit GC Co., Tokyo, Japan was used to measure the salivary characteristics. Independent samples Mann-Whitney U test was applied. Results: No significant difference was found in mean of ages between the group 1 (50.2±12.7) and Group 2 (46.5±12.2). All parameters of the salivary characteristics were in normal levels in both groups.  Non-stimulated flow rate; stimulated flow rate; pH; and buffering capacity of saliva were 1.69 mg/5 minutes and 1.75 mg/5 minutes; 6.92 and  6.83; 9.55 mg/5 minutes and 9.71 mg/5 minutes; 10.62 and 10.42, in group 1 and group 2, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences in the salivary characteristics between group 1 and group 2 (p>0.05). Conclusion: Chemotherapy did not effect the flow rate, pH and buffering capacity of saliva among patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma before receiving radiotherapy.