Spectrophotometric skin measurements correlate with EORTC/RTOG-common toxicity criteria

It was investigated whether the elementary EORTC/RTOG-CTC score (Common Toxicity Criteria) for radiotherapy skin reactions correlates with spectrophotometric measurements of the skin color. PATIENTS, MATERIAL, AND METHODS: In 41 patients irradiated for unilateral breast cancer the regular scoring by CTC was done during radiotherapy. In parallel, a total of 4,920 spectrophotometric measurements to determine the skin color were performed at baseline, at the beginning of radiotherapy, and at 20, 40 and 60 Gy. The nonirradiated contralateral breast was used for control measurements. As expected, the skin color (especially red) depended on the radiation dose applied to the skin. The objective spectrophotometric measurements were found to correlate well with the subjective CTC scores. For classification of acute radiation toxicity there seems to be no need to replace the common CTC scoring by technical methods.