Radiotherapy and dermatology

Radiotherapy has a role to play in the treatment of almost all malignant skin conditions and a few benign ones. Its use in the UK has been variable for several reasons. In some areas, traditional referral patterns have curtailed its use and the siting of radiotherapy departments in the larger urban areas has not given universal ease of access to all patients. Certainly radiation damage from excess radiation dose, whereby skin atrophy, telangiectasia, necrosis and ulceration even necessitated plastic surgery intervention, did occur in the past but, with better dosimetry, a wider range of radiotherapy modalities available and more careful fractionation, this is now rare.