squamous-cell carcinoma

vivirasselena

About a month ago I noticed a red bump on my chest where the radiation had destroyed my chest (along with shingles to boot)...when I had my replacement surgery on the 5th of December, I asked the PS to please take it off...he did.

Turns out it was squamous-cell carcinoma, and I get to go BACK under the knife to have MORE of the skin around and under it removed.

My dermo is a genius, and said it is a rare side effect from radiation.  All this to say, if you notice a raised and red zit-like bump where you were radiated, go to your derm immediately.

Yup.....this makes 4 surgeries this year.  I'm REAL over this now.

So back under the knife I go.

This WILL be the last time.

dlb823

So sorry that happened to you, but glad you and your PS were on top of things.  Was this the only squamous-cell carcinoma you've had?  Living in sunny California, I've had several taken off my arm, and I wonder if being prone to them pre-bc & RT makes it any more likely you might get one post-RT?     Deanna

vivirasselena

nope...never had any skin cancer before.  I, too am from SO Cal.. and have reasonably olive skin, rarely burn.

My derm said it is a very rare complication to RT...and I haven't asked if there might be a recurrance

But radiation burns tore me to shreds....I even had SHINGLES on top of my rad burns, so I'm guessing I'm a rare exception. 

cycle-path

It's so interesting to me that some fair-skinned women don't have burns but some darker-skinned women DO! I wonder why that is?

peggy_j

This is a tangent, but I'd like to make a plug for wearing lip balm with SPF. A friend's father in So. Calif. had skin cancer on his lip and it was a somewhat complicated procedure (needed a skin graph, etc.)

Jo_Ann_K

I am very fair-skinned with gray hair (once blue-black color) and am very prone to skin burns.  When I had my radiation, the creams kept the burn down to a little pink, but for six months after the radiation, I had small red bumps that oozed all over the radiated breast area and a few on the other breast that was not affected. 

At that time, the dermo tried many ways to resolve it..cortisone, antifungals, combination of the two, and at the end of the day, it was mother nature that resolved it. He did biopsy it at the time and it came back as inflammation and nothing more. 

Fast forward three years later...a new dermatologist who is very up to date on all things "skin", and she feels that my skin was overradiated..causing the problem.  My point is that it isn't necessary for your skin to "burn" to react to the radiation.

vivirasselena

Well, I went in and had MORE of the area cut away last week by my plastic surgeon.  I just did a local anesthetic cause they said I would have to wait to 2012 to go into general surgery!  Fudge that spit!

Just keep an eye on your radiation burned skin for ANY changes,, we have really no idea long term what that stuff does to us