Oral shedding of human herpesviruses in patients undergoing radiotherapy/chemotherapy for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma is not affected by xerostomia.

: Xerostomia is a very relevant and frequent complication of radiotherapy, causing the irradiated oral mucosa to be affected by bacterial, fungal and viral infections. : The objective of this study was to evaluate a possible relationship between oral shedding of human herpesviruses and xerostomia in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of head and neck submitted to radio/chemotherapy. : In this study, oral rinse samples were collected weekly from 20 patients during radiotherapy.