Skin and radiotherapy

Transcutaneous radiotherapy can lead, to a greater or lesser degree, to cutaneous and sub-cutaneous lesions: radiodermites; with a development more often chronic than acute, insidious and delayed, the major risk is that they become cancerous. Occurring very frequently during the conventional radio-therapy practiced in the first half of this century their after-effects are still observed today. They may be unrecognised, hard to diagnose retrospectively in subjects who are often old and unaware of motives, technical ways and means and sometimes the very existence of irradiation undergone in the past. However with modern techniques, especially high-energy irradiation, practiced in France by radiotherapists alone, ever-greater exploits are accomplished avoiding the skin. Rigour and economy must nevertheless be observed in the choice of these treatments where the long-term effects are irreversible, and much debated in the field of genetic and carcinogenic effects of ionising radiations