Scientists launch major study to unravel salivary gland mysteries

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

* INCLUSION CRITERIA: * Persons older than 4 years of age, affected with or suspected of being affected with a disease/disorder involving the salivary glands or who is a relative of a person who is affected with these diseases/disorders. Or, \- Persons 18 years or older with active hepatitis with or without sicca symptoms and patients undergoing immunotherapy with an immune checkpoint inhibitor for oral cancer. Specific to patients undergoing immunotherapy with an immune checkpoint inhibitor for threatment of oral cancer, these patients will be seen before and after check point inhibitor therapy which will coincide with 4 weeks (+/-2 weeks) before and again immediately before (+/- 2 weeks) definitive oral cancer treatment initiation (e.g., surgical resection, etc.). Or, \- Healthy persons age 18 or older, who agree to have blood, urine, saliva or tissue samples collected and studied. EXCLUSION CRITERIA: * Anyone not able to give consent/assent or parental/guardian consent * NIH employees who report directly to the principal investigator * Significant concurrent medical condition or other circumstances that may affect the participant s ability to tolerate or complete the study, such as concurrent chemotherapy or bleeding disorders. * Specific only to the immune checkpoint inhibitor patients, oral cancer as a serious concurrent medical condition, will not serve as an exclusion criteria. * Moreover, these immune checkpoint inhibitor subjects, if unable to tolerate the study procedures, such as salivary gland biopsies, saliva collections, and/or oral exams, will be excluded as determined by the Principal Investigator. * Additional exclusion criteria for Healthy Volunteers (HV): * Pregnancy * Sicca Symptoms * HIV, hepatitis B or C infection * Chronic medical illness, other than well-controlled hypertension or hyperlipidemia * Chronic use of medications, with the exception of oral contraception, hormone replacement therapy, aspirin, antihypertensives and antilipemics