All Radiation therapy for cancer treatment, including both primary and adjuvant, is non-specific and kills not only cancer cells that it is targeting, but also healthy cells that happen to be in the target area. A common side effect on healthy cells is radiation burn.
Radiation burn is characterized with skin, within the target area, that peels. This skin damage can occur within 1 to 2 weeks of treatment and usually resolves itself over time once the treatment period is complete.
Symptoms of radiation burn (aka dermatitis) can also include hair loss, skin peeling, decreased sweating, edema, skin ulceration, and bleeding. The extent of any of these symptoms depends on the total radiation dose, the size of the area treated, cellular fractionation, and the type of radiation used by the radiologist. When the radiation burn is severe the radiation treatment should be discontinued until the skin heals.
There are Different Ways to Treat Radiation Burn
- Keep your skin moisturized and lubricated to prevent itching and cracking.
- Be sure to use fragrance-free products.
- Do not wash with hot water, use only luke warm water.
- Avoid hot baths, as this will dry your skin, instead take a quick luke warm shower.
- Pat yourself dry with a towel instead of rubbing and irritating your skin.
- Be careful not to rub off the markings your radiation therapist made on your skin.
- Never use heating pads, ice packs or bandages on the area receiving the radiation.
- Do not use any skin care products or oils because they might reduce the efficacy of the radiation treatment.
- Use non-adhesive dressings, adhesive bandage removal could cause further damage to your skin.
- Do not wear tight clothing around the treated area.
- Clothes and bed sheets should be made of soft cotton, no synthetic materials that might cause additional irritation to your skin.
- Use an electric razor if your doctor or nurse says you can shave.
- Avoid exposing the treated area to the sun while you are being treated. Wear sun-protective clothing, especially over the treated area.
- Check with your doctor to see how long you should continue to take sun precautions.
Why would skin radiation burn be relevant to a modern prostate cancer patient?
Yes, it can be relevant. Men with prostate cancer can receive radiation as a primary treatment and as adjuvant treatment to deal with a recurrence. Radiation is also used to target specific pain mets.
Joel, you missed my point. Skin burn has not been relevant to prostate cancer for 25 years or more – at least not since the days when 2DRT was used. They now use megavolt (6MV or more) radiation that penetrates deeply and deposits very little radiation at the surface. This is unlike radiation that is used for closer to the surface cancers like breast or head and neck cancers. It’s important for patients to understand that treatments and side effects vary widely from cancer to cancer.
Allen, Generally I agree, but there are a number of exceptions that I know about. There is a man on our new online Health Unlocked Advanced Prostate Cancer Support Group who had to temporarily stop his radiation treatments because of very severe skin burn. By the way you (or anyone else can join this group by going to: http://bit.ly/1PSvuBR – Joel
There are some very sensitive individuals – some of whom have mutations in their ATM genes – who cannot tolerate radiation anywhere. Their healthy tissue lacks the ability to self-repair, and they can wind up with fistulas. Fortunately, that kind of sensitivity is exceedingly rare. The incidence of mutated ATM is less than 1 in 40,000.
Allen, Thanks for the explaination. I appreciate it. – Joel