Surface dose and acute skin reactions in external beam breast radiotherapy

The biologically relevant depth for acute skin reactions in radiotherapy is 70 µm. The dose at this depth is difficult to measure or calculate and can be quite different than the dose at a depth of as little as 1 mm. For breast radiotherapy with medial and lateral tangential beams, the skin dose depends on both the contribution from the entrance beam and the exit beam. The sk in dose has been estimated in a breast model hemi-ellipse accounting for field size, beam energy, obliquity, lack of backscatter, fractionation, size and shape of the hemi-ellipse.
Source: Medical Dosimetry - Category: Radiology Authors: Source Type: research