Journal Article DKFZ-2021-00190

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Severe skin toxicity during whole-brain radiotherapy, targeted therapy, and additional drug intake including St. John's wort skin oil.

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2021
Springer Medizin Heidelberg

Strahlentherapie und Onkologie 197(7), 644-649 () [10.1007/s00066-020-01739-0]
 GO

Abstract: Metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) often requires a multimodal treatment including chemotherapy, targeted therapy and radiotherapy. In addition to this, many patients take supportive drugs. Since only scarce data on possible interactions between radiotherapy and pharmaceutical or herbal drugs exist, description of clinical cases is of special interest.A patient with stage IV NSCLC was treated with docetaxel/ramucirumab followed by radiotherapy for brain and bone metastases while taking several other over-the-counter drugs (OTCs) including topical St. John's wort skin oil.A 63-year-old female patient with stage IV NSCLC presented with 11 asymptomatic brain metastases and a painful osteolytic bone metastasis in the 12th thoracic vertebral body (T12). Four weeks before the start of palliative whole-brain radiotherapy and bone irradiation of T12, she was administered a combination of docetaxel and ramucirumab. At an administered dose of 24 Gy, the patient presented with severe folliculitis capitis, while skin examination over the thoracolumbar spine was unremarkable although skin dose was similar. After thorough questioning, the patient reported using a herbal skin oil that contained St. John's wort for scalp care only, but not for skin care of her back during radiotherapy. After stopping the topical application of the skin oil, folliculitis improved with a course of systemic and topical antibiotics within 10 days, though the healing process was prolonged and included desquamation and hyperpigmentation.St. John's wort seems to be a significant radiosensitizer for photon radiotherapy and can cause severe skin toxicity even though the literature lacks data on this interaction. As an OTC, it is easily accessible and often used by oncological patients due to antidepressant and local antimicrobial and pain-relieving effects.

Keyword(s): Docetaxel ; Folliculitis capitis ; Radioimmunotherapy ; Radiosensitizer ; Ramucirumab

Classification:

Note: 2021 Jul;197(7):644-649

Contributing Institute(s):
  1. E050 KKE Strahlentherapie (E050)
  2. DKTK HD zentral (HD01)
Research Program(s):
  1. 315 - Bildgebung und Radioonkologie (POF4-315) (POF4-315)

Appears in the scientific report 2021
Database coverage:
Medline ; BIOSIS Previews ; Biological Abstracts ; Clarivate Analytics Master Journal List ; Current Contents - Clinical Medicine ; DEAL Springer ; Essential Science Indicators ; IF < 5 ; JCR ; NationallizenzNationallizenz ; SCOPUS ; Science Citation Index Expanded ; Web of Science Core Collection
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 Record created 2021-01-26, last modified 2024-02-29



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