Management of Skin and Related Reactions to Radiotherapy

摘要

The human skin has many unique functions and features: it is a barrier for fluid retention and diffusion and provides excellent protection against mechanical, physical and chemical stress. Other functions include thermal regulation, sensory function and secretion of different liquids and secretions. Ionizing radiation and cytotoxic drugs may disturb or damage several of these functions. While radiogenic skin reactions are easy to prove as they correspond to the radiation portal, cytotoxic drug-associated skin toxicity is much more difficult to detect. Early skin reactions are always a warning sign for a high individual sensitivity to ionizing radiation or chemotherapeutic drugs or may function as an indicator for other organ changes.The radiogenic skin reactions are well known from long-term clinical experience, and related pathophysiological tissue changes are easier to examine than in other organ systems. They serve as an experimental model for the course of radiogenic reactions. Nevertheless, the 'standard of care of skin reactions' has remained a subject of controversy for decades.