Radioprotectors and normal-tissue sparing drugs

Amifostine, a thiol prodrug, was approved to reduce dry mouth after head and neck radiotherapy and kidney damage from cisplatin, but nausea, low blood pressure and worries about tumour protection limited its use; intensity-modulated radiotherapy achieved the same salivary sparing by physics. Palifermin, a keratinocyte growth factor, reduces severe mucositis after total body irradiation. Research continues on agents that protect the gut and lung, on mitigators given after exposure (relevant to radiation accidents as well as therapy), and on drugs that separate tumour and normal tissue response such as avasopasem.