Pediatric Oncology
Education Materials

Skin

Introduction

It is common for survivors of childhood cancer to have long-term skin conditions related either to the therapy or the disease itself¹ 

Radiotherapy, Chemotherapy and underlying immune compromise all contribute to this problem⁵.

One long term study found that dermatological issues were reported by 59% of adult survivors of childhood cancers with 50% that saw a dermatologist at least once for these concerns⁵.

Skin conditions fall into the following broad categories:

• Disease related:
  • Direct effect of primary tumor:
    • Cutaneous invasion and damage
• Patient related:
  • Underlying genetic condition:
    • Very rare:
      • Ataxia telangiectasia
      • Xeroderma pigmentosum
• Therapy related:
  • Graft vs Host disease (GvHD)
  • Secondary to Allografting
  • Infection secondary to immunosuppression:
    • Human papilloma virus can cause widespread warts which can be difficult to treat
    • Herpes simplex and herpes zoster infections can be prolonged with indolent ulcers
    • Mucocutaneous candidiasis usually occurs during therapy, but can be prolonged
    • Bacterial cellulitis: Streptococcal cellulitis is more common in the limbs of patients with lympedema as a long term consequence of cancer treatment and in immunocompromized patients
  • Side effects of primary therapy
    • Radiation therapy (RT)
    • Chemotherapy

Back to top

Next