Histatin-1 has predominately anticandidal activity, and it is well known that patients with previous head and neck cancer often suffer from oral candida infections as a side effect of radiation therapy, which is in line with a very recent paper reporting substantial changes in the salivary proteome after radiotherapy of head and neck cancer patients, including a decrease in salivary levels of cystatins and histatins3,54. The gene discussed is HTN1; the disease is head and neck cancer.