The dissertation presents a theoretical justification and a practical solution to an actual problem - the study of the effect of radioactive radiation on the condition and function of the salivary glands, the oral cavity, teeth and periodontics, and the development of a program for the diagnosis and treatment of salivary gland pathology in patients who underwent radioactive iodine therapy for papillary cancer thyroid gland.
Today, there is a tendency in the world to increase the number of patients with differentiated forms of thyroid cancer. The incidence of highly differentiated thyroid cancer is increasing worldwide, with a 5-year recurrence-free survival rate of over 95% over the past 20 years.
The frequency of its occurrence in different countries ranges from 0.8-9.4 cases per 100,000 population per year among women and 0.6-2.6 per 100,000 population among men. In Ukraine, this number is higher, especially among persons who were children or teenagers at the time of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which is particularly related to the negative impact of the Chernobyl disaster on human health. This is evidenced by the dynamics of this disease: if during 19861988 it was 0.1 cases per 100,000 children of Ukraine, then in 1990 it increased to 0.4 cases per 100,000 children. In all subsequent years, the incidence continued to increase and in 2012. It amounted to 6.1 cases per 100,000 children of Ukraine. Despite the years that have passed since the accident, the relevance of this problem remains. The authors note that the effects of radiation pollution can be felt for 50 years after radiation exposure.
It is known that radiation-induced papillary carcinomas have a high biological potential of malignancy, which determines the radical protocol of their treatment, which is based on thyroidectomy with dissection of lymphatic collectors of the neck and subsequent ablative therapy with I131 isotopes that selectively accumulate in thyroid tissue, including tissues of highly differentiated papillary carcinomas. The use of radio iodine therapy is the "gold standard" in the treatment of this category of patients, which makes it possible to achieve a five-year survival rate of 98%. The improvement of radio iodine therapy protocols, along with the introduction of new surgical techniques, makes the treatment of highly differentiated forms of thyroid carcinoma quite predictable and allows the vast majority of patients to recover work capacity and return to normal life. This leads to increased interest in the prevention and elimination of iatrogenic complications and negative side effects of treatment, among which, one of the most common, severe and capable of affecting the quality of life of patients is radiation-induced damage to the salivary glands, which is accompanied by signs of an acute or chronic inflammatory process with subsequent development dystrophy, fibrosis and progressive functional insufficiency of the salivary glands.
