With this discovery, it had been 300 years since scientists had discovered a new organ in the human body. The organ found in hundreds of patients is probably a fourth pair of salivary glands. The likely gland is located at the back of the throat, near where COVID-19 tests are taken with a swab. The researchers confirmed their findings with colleagues at UMC Amsterdam using corpses and have now named humanity’s newest organ.
Salivary glands: a new organ within the brain
Although it is an important discovery for science or the human genome, the origin of this new organ according to researchers, the glands could be a cause of complications for patients undergoing radiation, including dysphagia (difficulty swallowing), and knowing them could help oncologists avoid this area to prevent possible complications.
“Radiation therapy can damage the salivary glands, which can lead to complications,” Vogel explained. “Patients may have trouble eating, swallowing or speaking, which can be a real burden.”
And, while studying the patients’ scans, the scientists identified this fourth salivary gland, the new, almost hidden organ, as the cause of a side effect of the treatment of cancers by radiology. As they explain it:
“We observed that PSMA PET/CT also represented an unknown structure in the nasopharynx, similar to the known major salivary glands. As far as we know, this structure did not fit previous anatomical descriptions. “This could have clinical relevance in oncology because high-dose radiotherapy (RT) to the salivary glands during the treatment of head and neck cancer (HNC) or brain metastasis is known to cause damage.”
But how did they discover the new organ?
The team examined 723 patients who had undergone radiation treatment in this area and found that the more radiation was given to the area containing the tubal glands, the more complications the patients experienced after therapy.
This story was written in Spanish by Perla Vallejo in Ecoosfera
