Towards unravelling biological mechanisms behind radiation-induced oral mucositis via mass spectrometry-based proteomics.

Objective: Head and neck cancer (HNC) accounts for almost 890,000 new cases per year. Radiotherapy (RT) is used to treat the majority of these patients. A common side-effect of RT is the onset of oral mucositis, which decreases the quality of life and represents the major dose-limiting factor in RT.