Quantitative assessment of skin erythema due to radiotherapy—evaluation of different measurements

Abstract

Background and purpose: Visual assessment is the most common clinical investigation of skin reactions in radiotherapy. Due to the unquantitative and subjective nature of this method additional non-invasive methods are needed for more accurate evaluation of the visible acute adverse skin reactions due to radiotherapy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a new objective measure with regard to reliability and validity and compare it with an established objective measure and a visual assessment. Patients and methods: A sample of 53 consecutive patients commencing curative tangential radiation therapy to the breast parenchyma were included in the study. The skin area of the treated breast was divided into five sections and assessed individually at 0, 24 and 50 Gy. The RTOG scoring system was used for the visual assessment of the skin reactions. The first objective measure included reflectance spectrometry (DermaSpectrometer) measures at fixed points within the treatment area. For the second objective measure digital images (Camera) were taken with a system using a digital camera and software. The images were analyzed using the Adobe Photoshop 5.0 software program. Results: The results provided significant evidence of the test–retest reliability of the camera. The correlation between the objective measures proved to be significant as the treatment progressed. Conclusions: The results suggest that the camera may be used in a reliable and valid way to measure skin erythema due to radiotherapy.