What Does Radiation Therapy Do To Your Skin?

Also known as radiation oncology, radiotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that utilizes ionizing radiation to destroy cells in the body. This type of radiation is usually very targeted, causing minimal damage to other tissues in the body; however, since ionizing radiation destroys rapidly-dividing cells, skin cells tend to get caught in the crossfire. The targeted cancer cells will take the majority of the damage, causing the desired destruction of rogue cells.

How Does Radiotherapy Affect Skin?

As hinted above, ionizing radiation has the most effect on rapidly dividing and multiplying cells. The outermost layer of any area that will be treated with radiotherapy is一 you guessed it一 skin. For this reason, radiation oncology tends to cause destruction to the irradiated area. Burning, itching, and rashes are all common side effects of radiotherapy一 this is called radiation dermatitis.

What Is Radiation Dermatitis?

Radiation dermatitis is one of five main side effects that come from radiotherapy. This is a skin condition that feels much like eczema, but it tends to be much more intense and difficult to get rid of while radiotherapy treatment is ongoing. Unfortunately, your skin won’t get a chance to heal properly until the damaging radiation ceases. You can, however, prepare your skin in advance to minimize the symptoms of radiation dermatitis. Start your radiation burn treatment before you go in for your first radiotherapy appointment, and you will have started off on the right foot.

Radiation Dermatitis Symptoms

Redness and general irritation of the skin
Swelling of the skin
Dry skin and peeling
Blisters, ulcers, or skin thinning

How To Treat Radiation Burns

Once your round radiotherapy has finished, you can start focusing on healing, rather than mitigating the severity of, your radiation dermatitis. During your treatment, you can use a skin cream that both hydrates and provides nutrients to your damaged skin. Be on the lookout for a cream with soothing, gentle ingredients like aloe, calendula extract, bamboo extract, pea extract, glucosamine, and hyaluronic acid.

Rejuvaskin’s Skin Recovery Cream

Here at Rejuvaskin, we’ve created our Skin Recovery Cream with radiotherapy patients in mind. Our unique formula contains botanicals and key compounds that no only hydrate and soothe the skin, but also help stimulate collagen production一 a critical part of wound healing. What our oncology cream doesn't include: steroids (which fail to treat the actual source of the problem, only the symptoms, and can be irritating to sensitive skin).

Are you starting radiotherapy soon? Make sure to pick up some Skin Recovery Cream, and start using it one to two weeks prior to your first treatment session.