A project was developed to improve the quality of life for cancer patients

A project has been developed by Selçuk University Faculty of Medicine to improve the quality of life for cancer patients. The project is expected to be completed in a short time and aims to enhance the well-being of individuals undergoing cancer treatment.

The project, led by Dr. Serkan Yıldırım, a faculty member at Selçuk University Faculty of Medicine, aims to restore and effectively activate the damaged salivary glands of patients undergoing radiotherapy.

The project titled “Therapeutic Potential of Local Application of Mesenchymal Stem Cell Exosomes in Radiotherapy-Induced Xerostomia,” submitted under the Research and Development Projects Support Program of the Turkish Health Institutes Presidency (TÜSEB), has been awarded funding.

The project, which aims to restore the function of damaged salivary glands in oncology patients undergoing radiotherapy, involves 12 faculty members from Selçuk University’s Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Dentistry and is expected to be completed within 36 months.

Dr. Serkan Yıldırım stated that radiotherapy is the only treatment method for patients with tumors. While radiotherapy helps treat cancer, especially in the early stages, it causes serious side effects. Yıldırım explained, “The affected area is the nasopharynx tumor, which is the region behind the nose. Because of this, the large salivary glands are particularly affected by radiotherapy. This leads to difficulties in eating and causes issues that disrupt quality of life, ranging from infections to swallowing problems. The occurrence rate of these problems can reach 80 to 90 percent in patients receiving radiotherapy. With our project, we aimed to offer a solution to this problem.”

Dr. Serkan Yıldırım explained, “We plan to carry out this process not with the stem cells themselves, but through exosomes, which are parts of the stem cells. The outcomes of our project, which we will produce in clinical studies, are related to injections. Therefore, I can say that we will begin our work directly. However, we need time to reach the necessary quantities for our patients, observe the effects, and provide them with proper treatment.”