Advantages and Disadvantages of Radiation Therapy for Skin Cancer

Most skin cancers are basal cell carcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma, which are sensitive to radiotherapy. Therefore, radiotherapy is one of the important treatments for skin cancer. It can be used alone or as an adjuvant therapy before or after surgical treatment or combined with other treatments. Radiotherapy has the following advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages of radiotherapy for skin cancer : ① Less damage; ② No scars, no changes in the body's appearance, no impact on appearance; ③ No hypertrophic scars, keloids, or skin contractures; ④ A certain protective effect on adjacent tissues that are not invaded by the tumor; ⑤ Radiotherapy is less painful and patient compliance is high; ⑥ Radiotherapy does not cause serious psychological trauma to patients like surgical treatment; ⑦ The treatment time is short and patients do not need to be hospitalized.

Disadvantages of radiotherapy for skin cancer: ① The sweat glands in the radiation-irradiated area are damaged or lost; ② Some patients will experience skin atrophy, capillary dilation, depigmentation or deposition, dryness or keratinization; ③ Histopathological examination cannot be performed during treatment, and the exact boundaries of the tumor cannot be controlled; ④ Patients undergoing radiotherapy will suffer from severe hair loss and are not easy to regenerate new hair.