Assessment of acute and chronic radiodermatitis of female patients with breast cancer - the impact of radiotherapy and patient related factors

INTRODUCTION: Radiotherapy used after breast-conserving surgery may cause acute and chronic side effects on skin. In our study, we aimed to investigate skin adverse effects caused by both personal factors and factors about radiotherapy.
METHODS: Female patients with breast cancer aged more than 18 were recruited into this study. Clinical and laboratory data including age, hight, weight, body mass index, smoking status, educational status, adjuvant chemotherapy and/or hormono therapy, skin phototype, using of any skin care cream, analyze aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, fasting plasma glucose, fasting plasma insulin, homeostatic model assessment insulin resistance and creatinine, type of surgery, radiotherapy technical details. We examined the area of skin receiving radiotherapy at the end of the first month (early side effects) and the third month (late side effects) of radiotherapy for breast.
RESULTS: We reached 78 patients but 56 of 78 patients came to dermatology outpatient clinic for their second controls and 34 of 78 patients came for their third controls. We determined significant relationships between BMI and acute radiodermatitis (p = 0.021). In addition, there were significant relationships between smoking, BMI, fasting plasma insülin, homeostatic model assessment insulin resistance and chronic radiodermatitis (p = 0.01, p = 0.049, p = 0.012, p = 0.025 respectively).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: According to our study, smoking, body mass index, fasting plasma insulin, homeostatic model assessment insulin resistance are significantly effective on radiodermatitis. Nevertheless, further studies conducted with more extensive patient series are needed to validate our findings and assess their clinical importance.