When radiation therapy is used to treat head and neck cancers, there is a risk of destroying oral tissues and damaging the spinal cord or brain. And at the moment it is not possible to avoid these side effects.
However, a substance that relieves the effects of radiation therapy is being tested at the University of Oxford. This substance is also present in certain foods, such as curcum from India, one of the main components of the species, so researchers do not believe it is toxic and expect it to be expelled soon for therapeutic use.