Does Mepitel Film decrease skin reactions caused by radiation therapy in head and neck cancer patients?

External beam irradiation is a common treatment option for most solid cancers. Although the skin of all patients receives a certain amount of radiation, the skin dose in patients with tumours close to the skin, such as 40-60% of breast and head and neck cancer patients is high enough to cause severe reactions. Severe skin reactions can be very painful and affect patient quality of life as well as increasing the chance of developing infections. Our previous three skin trials in breast cancer patients in New Zealand showed that soft silicone dressings decreased skin reaction severity (1–4). The skin dose received by breast cancer patients was less than 40Gy. However, a small pilot study in NZ head and neck cancer patients receiving a higher skin dose (>45Gy) suggested that Mepitel Film was less effective. The aim of this trial is to determine in a larger cohort how effective Mepitel Film is in preventing and managing acute skin reactions caused by radiation therapy to cancer in the head and neck region. We used the preliminary results from the head and neck pilot study to recruit enough patients to be able to see a statistically significant decrease of 30% in skin reaction severity as measured by RISRAS trial. References 1. Diggelmann K, Zytkovicz A, Tuaine J, Bennett N, Kelly L, Herst P. Brit J Radiol [Internet]. 2010 Nov [cited 2012 May 9];83(995):971–8. 2. Paterson D, Poonam P, Bennett N, Peszynski R, Van Beekhuizen M, Jasperse M, et al. J Cancer Sci Ther [Internet]. 2012 [cited 2013 Jul 3];04(11):347–56. 3. Herst P, Bennet N, Sutherland A, Peszynski R, Paterson D, Jasperse M. Radiother Oncol., 2014 Jan;110(1):137-43. doi: 10.1016/j.radonc.2014.01.005. 4. Herst P. J Med Radiat Sci [Internet]. 2014 Jun 28 [cited 2014 Jul 4];61(2):119–25.