# A System for Xerostomia Risk Classification after Head & Neck Cancer Radiotherapy

> **NIH NIH R43** · ONCOSPACE, INC. · 2021 · $120,954

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
 Head and neck cancer (HNC) patients survive years after oncologic therapy due to increased
efficacy of therapy, increased incidences of human papilloma virus related HNC, and decreased numbers of
smoking and tobacco related tumors. However, the majority of patients are plagued with long lasting or
permanent dry mouth (xerostomia), whose severity, rate of development and resolution after treatment
vary largely between survivors. However, current prediction models for dry mouth have intrinsic issues
which so far have prevented their practical use in clinical care, including missing or incomplete data, co-
occurence of multiple symptoms, variability across populations and across time, and, in the case of HNC and
other spatially-dependent cancers, further symptom dependency on the anatomical location of dose within to
organs at risk, namely, salivary glands.
 We propose to develop validated, patient-specific models to interpret radiation dose to salivary
glands in order to inform individual treatment and care decisions for patients. Our data science
approach circumvents limitations in the state of the art by accounting for more complex dose-reponse
models of dry mouth, by calibrating for inter-patient variability, and by predicting symptom development and
computing clinical action signals for a new patient based on cohorts of similar patients.
 The proposed supplement application extends the methodological approach of the parent award by
incorporating validation data from an alternative facility, item assessment, and user experience testing of the
resultant software model user interface, undertaken within a career development plan designed to enhance
and accelerate the capacity of the applicant, who is from a background underrepresented in biomedical
sciences, to transition to mentored and independent investigator status, thus enhancing cancer research
workforce diversity under this program.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10410192
- **Project number:** 3R43CA254559-01A1S1
- **Recipient organization:** ONCOSPACE, INC.
- **Principal Investigator:** Pranav Lakshminarayanan
- **Activity code:** R43 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $120,954
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2021-06-01 → 2022-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10410192

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10410192, A System for Xerostomia Risk Classification after Head & Neck Cancer Radiotherapy (3R43CA254559-01A1S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10410192. Licensed CC0.

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