Abstract

Background: Improvement in loco-regional control with improved 5-year survival rate among cancer patients is seen with the use of concurrent radiation therapy (RT) with cisplatin. In the current project, assessment of dermatitis as acute side effect of 3-dimensional radiotherapy during and immediately after therapy was made among enrolled cancer patients.

Methodology: This study with enrolled patients (106) was carried out after hospital’s ethical approval at INMOL Lahore, Pakistan. All patients received radiotherapy according to current treatment protocol. Data was analyzed by applying statistical tests as p-value ≤0.05 was taken as significant.

Results: Patients developed different grades of it during treatment till 7 weeks. After one month of post-treatment, improvement in its grades was noted among patients.

Conclusion: The treatment response was good. Patients developed dermatitis of varying grades but post-irradiation period showed improvement in acute side effect so radiation is relatively safe treatment option.

Keywords: Head and Neck Cancer, Acute Side Effects, Dermatitis and 3-D Radiotherapy