46677
document
Evaluation of the effect of topical agents on radiation-induced skin disease by reflectance spectrophotometry . OBJECTIVES Radiotherapy may cause severe skin changes that significantly interfere with the patient 's quality of life and reduce radiotherapy effectiveness . Many skin care instructions and various topical agents are recommended to help patients in the management of radiation skin reactions , but evidence to support the value of the topical treatments of the irradiated skin is lacking . In the present study we investigated the effects of topical agents used as supportive care to minimise radiation-induced skin disease using an instrumental method . METHODS Subjects who were undergoing a planned course of radiation therapy after breast-conserving surgery were randomised to treatment ( using one of two topical agents ) or non-treatment ( control ) groups and monitored over 8 weeks . The intensity of skin erythema was evaluated once per week by non-invasive instrumental reflectance spectrophotometry in comparison with a visual scoring system . KEY FINDINGS Examination of the erythema time course by a sensitive spectrophotometric reflectance method showed a significant increase of skin reactions in the non-treated group after the second week of treatment and maximal alterations between the fourth and sixth week . CONCLUSIONS From the results obtained , we observed that application of topical agents used in radio-induced skin disease were able to significantly reduce the erythema extent compared to the non-treated group .
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Intervention_Pharmacological
topical agents
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Intervention_Control
control
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Outcome_Physical
radiation-induced skin disease
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Outcome_Physical
radiation-induced skin disease
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Outcome_Physical
intensity of skin erythema
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Outcome_Physical
erythema time course
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Outcome_Adverse-effects
skin reactions
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Outcome_Physical
erythema