My husband Barry takes Evoxac, which his ENT also takes as she had extensive radiation a number of years ago for a head/neck cancer. She and his dental onc both feel it is a superior drug to Salagen, but does not help everyone as there has to be some residual salivary gland function. Plus, of course, people vary in their response and some have adverse side effects.

Barry was started on Evoxac 3x a day. he is now taking it 1-2x a day. Some days (if it is mild and humid) he dosen't seem to need it at all. As many know (as I've posted on this before) Barry also gets a lot of mouth relief by chewing a Xylitol-containing dental gum, XylMax. This gum also reducing mouth sugars after eating, so helps a radiation patient in this way as well.

Barry saw his dental oncologist Monday, who said his salivary production is very good considering and so far, his teeth continue to be OK. He was fortunate to be able to take amifostine all the way through treatment and also, had tomoTherapy IMRT with the very precise margins which avoided more of his salivary glands than if he had had conventional IMRT.

It is probably worth trying Evoxac. I would repeat what our ENT said -- that she had relatively minor benefits for some months (using Salagen before switching to Evoxac when it became available) but all of a sudden things improved, and now she only uses the drug at night. Thus it might be some time before you see full benefits.

Gail