Abstract Oral mucositis is a severe side effect of cancer treatment in patients with head and neck cancer. These ulcerative lesions often interfere with eating and swallowing, making recovery more difficult and potentially delaying treatment. In this study, we evaluated the impact of genetic inhibition of fat-mass and obesity-associated gene (FTO), an m6A RNA demethylase, on the severity of radiation-induced oral mucositis in C57BL6/J mice. Tongues were collected 10 days following administration of 18 Gy irradiation to the head and neck region. Histopathology demonstrated equivalent damage between FTO-knockout (KO) and wild-type (WT) mice following radiation. Thus, FTO inhibition does not exacerbate normal tissue damage following radiation and supports further investigation of FTO as a potential therapeutic target in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Citation Format: Margaret Pan, Leighton Pu, Stavros Melemenidis, Edward Elliot Graves, Kerriann M. Casey, Erinn Rankin. Genetic inhibition of FTO does not exacerbate the severity of radiation-induced oral mucositis in C57BL/6 mice abstract. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2026; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2026 Apr 17-22; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2026;86(7 Suppl):Abstract nr 5268.
Pan et al. (Fri,) studied this question.