Development of an Illustrated Scale for Acute Radiation Dermatitis in Breast Cancer Patients
Recommended Citation
Shumway DA, Kapadia N, Walker EM, Griffith KA, Do TT, Feng M, Boike T, Helfrich Y, DePalma B, Gillespie EF, Miller A, Hayman J, Jagsi R, and Pierce LJ. Development of an Illustrated Scale for Acute Radiation Dermatitis in Breast Cancer Patients. Pract Radiat Oncol 2020.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-15-2020
Publication Title
Pract Radiat Oncol
Abstract
PURPOSE: Scales for rating acute radiation dermatitis (ARD) have not been validated despite decades of clinical use, and little is known regarding the relationship between toxicity scores and patient-reported symptoms. Skin tone also complicates assessment of ARD, and as such we sought to design an illustrated scale to consistently describe ARD across several skin tone types in breast cancer patients undergoing radiation (RT).
METHODS: Patients undergoing RT for breast cancer were enrolled on a prospective study with photographs obtained at 2-week intervals. Photographs were clustered according to the apparent severity of acute radiation dermatitis and a descriptive photonumeric scale was developed. Four clinically experienced raters used both the illustrated photonumeric scale and the CTCAE to independently score the collection of photographs in two independent sessions.
RESULTS: Among 80 unique patients with 192 photographs, 47 patients (59%) completed questionnaires about their symptoms during RT. Physicians completed toxicity forms at the point-of-care for 52 patients (65%). Photonumeric ratings compared against patient reports of dry and moist desquamation demonstrated high specificity (95% and 93%, respectively) and negative predictive value (84% and 92%), indicating correct identification of patients who did not report dry or moist desquamation. The sensitivity and positive predictive value for separate measures of dry and moist desquamation were considerably lower. A combined measure of any desquamation (dry or moist) portrayed higher diagnostic accuracy, resulting in 72% sensitivity, 93% specificity, 75% PPV, and 92% NPV. Photonumeric ratings of dry or moist desquamation were significantly associated with patient reports of itching, burning/stinging, hurting, and swelling.
CONCLUSION: The xxx scale for acute radiation dermatitis is a simple grading rubric that is distinguished by characterization of its intra- and inter-rater reliability and diagnostic accuracy, correlation with patient-reported symptoms of bother and pain, and applicability across the spectrum of skin pigmentation.
PubMed ID
32947041
ePublication
ePub ahead of print
