Skin Cream during radiation

Hi Lee,

I ordered the Jeans cream you suggested- starting my radiation tx in few wks... how frequently do you apply it- is it ok to apply before the treatment session? ( i read somewhere not to apply anything on the skin before the therapy session....)

thanks

Nj

Hello,    I was diagosed with triple negative bc 11/2008, had modified radical mastectomy, 1/09 on right breast, with 2/9 nodes, tumor 6cm, Stage IIIB had chemotherapy and just finished 36 radiation sessions. I used My Girl's Radiaiton Cream.  I wanted something natural, as I cannot use petrolatum products or mineral oil, which are in most creams purchased at over the counter drug stores.  I did have a good bit of pain, as I was getting a large dose of radiation.  My skin is just now beginning to peel.  I used the cream three to four times a day, but not for 4 hours before my rad session.  It is really soothing.  My doctor has been very impressed with my skin.  If you're interested you can purchase it at www.radiation.com  I highly recommend it!!!!!!!!   I did try aloe vera, but it didn't worked as well as this cream!!

Katie

I posted this on the August string as well. My doctor recommended X Clair cream. It's an rx and costly. I am red and only slightly itchy on day 16. No peeling though. I'm curious about whether my nipple will go back to it's original size and color. Does anyone know the answer to this?

I tried many different things (Biafine, Aquaphor, My Girls Cream, etc) but what actually WORKED was Calendula Ointment (Boiron Brand, Homeopathic).  It's widely available at health food stores and such - or online.  It's very simple - just petroleum jelly and calendula.  There was a large double-blind study that showed it much more effective than Biafine.  Since Petroleum jelly is listed as the "active ingredient" in Aquaphor, I figure that's gotta be ok.  My Naturopath recommended the Calendula Ointment - he was aware of the study. 

If I had it to do all over again, I'd use just the Calendula Ointment and maybe some Alra Therapy Lotion or RadX (the latter 2 are creams, so absorb better and are less gooey than the Calendula Ointment, and they seemed to also help).  At about tx 16, the rads nurse told me I was likely to end up with blisters, given how red and tender my skin was already (I'd been using Biafine and Aquaphor up to that point). But once I started using the Calendula Ointment, my skin got progressively LESS red, despite the ongoing rads treatments.  (Rads doc wanted to know what the heck I was doing to cause such dramatic improvement!  I told her - and gave her a copy of the study.)  Skin didn't get red again until the very end - and still no blisters, etc.

Now that I'm 3 months post-rads, I'm using and liking the My Girls Cream as a nice daily moisturizer on the radiated area.  But it did nothing at all for me during rads.

Good luck to everyone!

Linda

After i developed an allergy to Radiagel (which i liked very much for the first 3 weeks) my rad onc explained that he recommends Radiagel rather than a fat-soluble lotion because if the fat-soluble cream is not washed off completely, it may aggravate burning. Radiagel doesn't do that. So he recommended water-soluble "goop" (my word) -- but if you have rxns to Radiagel, don't use it!!

Also, because your irradiated skin is more sensitive, avoid anything that's given you problems in the  past (fragrance, in my case). And just because someone else had (or didn't have) problems with some gel or lotion -- you might. We all react differently to rads!

finally -- be sure to report  any skin breakdown, rashes, etc as soon as they happen -- don't wait until your next appointment with the rad onc, the way i did! Infections and skin breakdown get worse quicker than you'd think ...

I am not undergoing RADS but I was researching the radiation induced dermatitis issue for someone and came across an article about an Italian study showing that a glass of wine daily during radiation treatment signfiicantly reduced the untoward dermatological side effects, based on the beneficial aspects of polyphenols.  It was just in the news last month. 

http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE5602AV20090701

Published in this month's International Journal of Radiation Oncology....

http://www.redjournal.org/article/S0360-3016(09)00090-X/abstract

[NOTE:  The amount of wine consumed is important - one glass appears to signficantly benefit and two glasses reduces the benefit.]

This comes after the 2008 studies which revealed that reservatrol in red wine could ameliorate the adverse effects of radiation...

http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2008/09/23/wine-compound-may-protect-against-radiation.html

I know that wine or alcohol in general has been contraindicated by many in the professional field - for BC much less during cancer treatment...but it is an interesting article and study and so I just wanted to share it with you brave women undergoing treatment.

I've been using Aquaphor vaseline based ointment, and it's working wonders. 

Hey gang!!!  Well I didn't finish rads 8/4 as planned. I had a breakdown of my skin, so they gave me a week off. I finish finally tomorrow 8/12

Toffey - I realize the My Girls' Cream has Calendula in it - that's why I got it.  But it had no effect on my burn. (Don't get me wrong - I like the texture and smell.  And am using it as a nice moisturizer now.  But it had no effect during radiation in my case.)  The Calendula Ointment actually has a homeopathic dose of calendula in it - that is, it has LESS calendula than the My Girls.  But it worked a lot better on my skin - eliminated the burn almost immediately. 

These is a large Phase III randomized trial that showed that calendula ointment worked better than Biafine for preventing radiation burn:  http://jco.ascopubs.org/cgi/content/abstract/22/8/1447

No, I don't sell the stuff - in fact, there are several brands out there.  I bought it from the nearby food co-op.  I just wish I had started using it from the beginning, and not spent so much money on the other things (that didn't work) before that.

Linda

This is my first post, it has been very informative. I had a lumpectomy on 6/25/09 with no nodes. I am on #17 of 30 radiations and have had itching and burning on my chest and side of my breast, like sun poisoning, since about #6 and have tried everything they give me Now I take benadryl at night and wake up with fatigue and benydryl cream,the aquaphor and the other cream made me burn and itch , the benadryl is not working well either so he said try 1% hydrocortisone today which helped somewhat, I am frustrated with the doc and dont feel like they take me seriously, I told him I think the fatigue is more from the lack of sleep because the itch is so bad not the radiation.  He brushed me off with "only 6 more like this  on that area then the surgery site" which I guess from this forum is called a "boost" for the remaining 7. If my chest is this bad now, I cant even imagine how it will be in 6 more sessions.  I asked him if then the rash will move to the lower part of my breast and he assured me "no" and that the other chest area would be healed He made it sound like "right away"  this forum has given me some insite that the doc and nurses surely dont. Do they just get numb to this hearing it over and over all day long? I had hives before and this is worse. Sometimes I want to scratch sooooo bad but I dont.  Thanks for listening and giving me a place to vent.

I posted this info in another area but think it might be helpful here also,  After two weeks the itching was getting really uncomfortable.  My sister, who is a nurse, told me to take a huydroxyzine (which she takes) for the itching.  Within 5 minutes, the itching stopped completely.  Its prescription but is for itching of the SKIN.  My rad techs were clueless on this one.  So I keep them on hand and only use if really necessary.

Hi. I'm going for my simulation early next week and was wondering if anyone out there knew the advantage to using the creams before radiation ?  Lots of the sites selling the creams suggest using them 1 -2 weeks before rads. (Of course, they've got an economic incentive.) But, I've also seen that many women posting on these Discussion Boards suggest it as well. Any clue as to how/why use before radiation is helpful ? Thanks !

TCoffey - I dont know if your product does or does not work, but either way (perhaps most of all if it does work), I dont understand why you pretend to be simply a user of My Girls Radiation Cream rather than being honest and telling us you're actually the founder and owner of the company called Radiant Life that puts out My Girls Radiation Cream. It seems almost as if you're trying to fool us all. Lurking on this site to answer any and every question about a cream and itching, burning or redness with a plug for your product. Almost as if you're using our pain to make a profit. If My Girls Radiation Cream works any where near the way you claim, why not not disclose that this is your baby ? Speaking just for myself, if I can't trust you, the owner to be honest enough to fully disclose your ownership, it makes me question whether I can trust your statements about My Girls Radiation Cream  and even question the product itself.

TCoffey - I certainly have no objection to you sharing your experience.  However, if you are going to mention My Girls Radiation Cream in a post, then you are obligated to mention that you sell it.  Not doing so just makes it look like your are talking up your product to generate sales - which is a violation of the user agreement for bc.org.

If you want to talk about your experience and not mention My GIrls Radiation Cream by name, then no problem.

If your product is really that good, then women who use it (and don't sell it) will rave about it, with no conflict of interest.  As MTG said, the fact that YOU are the one posting raving reviews makes me suspicious about the value of the product.  Your conflict of interest is obvious.

I believe that you should either edit (to acknowledge that you are the founder and seller of the product) or delete all of your posts that are raving about My GIrls Cream.

I hope that is clear.

Linda

MTG - well said re: My Girls Radiaion Cream.  It's the equivalent of a securities analyst enthusiastically recommending a stock, without disclosing they are a majority shareholder and stand to profit if people purchase the stock. In SEC parlance, that would be F-R-A-U-D.

Anyway, I had a great system by the third week of radiaton. I'm very fair skinned and was bright red, itching and beginning to peel w/in 15 treatments. My doctor was a little surpised and wanted to stop for a couple of days, but I wanted to push on. I had tried acquafor, but it made the itch worse, but my doctor said it was one of the best ointments to moisturize and heal the skin. So, I started using it again, but first I put on a layer of cortizone cream, then a thick layer of acquafor (especially around the nipple) and then I covered that mess with two xeroform bandages and wore a sleeveless ribbed t-shirt over it (no bra) and then a sweater/button down shirt on top of that. I did this immediately after my radiation treatment, wore it all day (replenishing the acuafor after 6 hours) and then removed it at night, gave my breast some air, and then put the whole mess in place again right before bed. My breast was literally saturated in goop 18 hours a day - and the redness significantly subsided over the course of a weekend. I finished radiaiton about two weeks ago and my skin is (shockingly) almost back to normal. It's only slightly tinted at this point, no itch at all - and I'm still doing this same routine (and will contiune to do it until I follow up with my radiologist in 2 weeks). The xeroforms are a little pricey, cost me about $40 a week, but I guess a good gauze, saturated in the acquafor will work too. I would reccomend the big tub of acquafor - it's really inexpensive, about $19 (and that's in manhattan) and I'm still on my first tub. Also, (suprisingly) acquafor washes out of clothing quite well. I just scrub the area with soap before throwing it in the washer and the oil stain disappears. At a certain point, I was also using an ice pack, which was 1/2 ice, 1/4 water. I never put it directly on my skin - just placed it on top of my t-shirt and left it there intermittently throughtout the day. That also helped a lot.

The key thing is to moisurize all day and do not scratch or scrub with soap. And if the itching is even slightly annoying, slap on some cortizone - it will help a lot.