Cancer Patients With Dark Skin At Increased Risk of Painful Radiation Side Effects, New Research

RELATED: New Study Suggests Younger Breast Cancer Survivors Are at Double the Risk of Getting Another Cancer

The American Cancer Center (ACC) describes radiation therapy as using “high-energy particles or waves, such as x-rays, gamma rays, electron beams, or protons, to destroy or damage cancer cells,” further explaining, “While chemotherapy and other treatments that are taken by mouth or injection usually expose the whole body to cancer-fighting drugs, radiation therapy is usually a local treatment. This means it’s usually aimed at and affects only the part of the body needing treatment.”

Radiation Treatment For Breast Cancer 

As for the new research, it looked into how 60 racially diverse breast cancer patients reacted to radiation therapy and checked for radiation dermatitis during the first year of radiation with something called a spectrophotometer.

Radiation therapy causes burns [radiation dermatitis] in more than 90 percent of patients among the four million radiotherapy-receiving patients in the U.S.,

The study reportedly found that darker skin doesn’t show reddening while radiation dermatitis is evolving.

After noting that the same group of researchers found in an earlier study that darker-skinned patients usually aren’t diagnosed with radiation dermatitis until their skin starts to peel and scar.

RELATED: The Debates Around Radiation for Breast Cancer 

As per the study’s lead author Dr. Juhi Purswani of NYU Langone and his fellow researchers, they concluded that the screening tool “likely under-captures radiation dermatitis in skin of color,” stressing the need for a new one.

Te researchers wrote in their final statement, “Objective skin changes and differences in toxicity were demonstrated according to fractionation and skin of color (SOC).

“SOC experienced a high rate of grade 2/3 RD and breast pain; however, objective skin reddening was not as apparent as in light or intermediate pts. The CTCAE likely under-captures RD in SOC and must be modified to better measure RD in SOC.”

WATCH: Solutions to Racial Disparities in Cancer Care

Robin Roberts and Her Partner’s Battle Cancer

Robin Roberts and her partner Amber Laign have supported each other through their separate breast cancer battles.

When Should I Get a Mammogram?

The TV broadcaster learned of her breast cancer diagnosis in 2007 after discovering a lump in her breast while preparing for a news segment on how to do self-breast exams.

Luckily, Roberts was declared cancer-free after undergoing surgery, eight rounds of chemotherapy, and nearly seven weeks of radiation therapy.

Following her successful battle, Roberts revealed that Laign had also been battling Breast cancer since her 2021 diagnosis, and she has since done everything she can do to support her partner.

In a past interview with Ellen Degeneres, Roberts said, “I didn’t realize how much I had blocked out during my journey, and it was because of sweet Amber, because she protected me and navigated for me. So, I’m doing the same thing for her.”

Despite the “complications” Laign had throughout chemotherapy and “challenging weeks to overcome,” Laign has since finished up her radiation treatments.

How to Be a Better Caregiver for Your Loved One

“Sweet Amber completing radiation, a very important phase of her treatment!” Roberts revealed in a July 2022 Instagram post of Laign ringing a bell as her radiation treatment concluded.

“We both thank you for all your well wishes and prayers. Proud of her and all fellow Thrivers for your grit and grace during a challenging time. This is indeed my #mondaymotivation.”

Radiation Therapy for Breast Cancer

Radiation therapy uses high-energy beams such as X-rays targeted at cancer cells to kill them. For breast cancer patients, radiation is commonly used after surgery to kill off any remaining cancer cells in the breast or surrounding area.

“When it comes to radiation therapy to the breast, what we’re learning is that shorter courses of radiation, like short course whole breast, may be associated with equal clinical outcomes and even the potential for reduced side effects,” Dr. Chirag Shah, the Director of Breast Radiation Oncology at Cleveland Clinic Cancer Center tells SurvivorNet.

Depending on how the radiation is administered, patients may feel something — but the treatment itself cannot be felt because it is simply ionizing energy that goes through the body.

WATCH: How does radiation feel on the body?

“Now, sometimes, you might feel the place where we place the tumor. If we’re placing applicators in the cancer, you might feel that. Or if you’re lying on a table and we’re holding you still, you might feel that. But the actual treatment is just ionizing energy. So, you don’t feel the treatment itself,” Radiation Oncologist Dr. Subhakar Mutyala explains to SurvivorNet.

Radiation has benefits, but it also comes with some side effects. Many cancer survivors who underwent radiotherapy say it impacts their skin, causing bright, red, swollen, dry, tight, itchy, blistered, or flaky skin.

Other side effects of radiation may include fatigue and hair loss.

Skin Care: Dealing With the Side Effects of Radiation

Overcoming Cultural Barriers to Improve Healthcare for Black Women

Clinical trials and medical studies are crucial to understanding how medicine works. However, most people participating in these studies and clinical trials are white.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) says Black Americans are “under-represented in cancer clinical trials,” which can limit our understanding of therapeutic response to Black populations.

The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) said in a 2020 report that studied demographic data on clinical trials for drug participation 75% of participants were white, 8% were Black African Americans, 6% were Asian, and 11% were Hispanic.

WATCH: Black Americans and cancer screenings.

The federal agency noted that patient recruitment and retention were critical to understanding the effectiveness of clinical trial results.

“As it is, patient recruitment in oncology clinical trials is quite low. For Black patients, it is about 4%,” Dr. Kathie-Ann Joseph, a breast surgeon and vice chair for diversity and health equity in the Department of Surgery at NYU Langone Health Perlmutter Cancer Center, previously told SurvivorNet, regarding the need for more diverse participation in this critical area of medicine.

Dr. Joseph highlighted some key areas the healthcare community must address to improve Black and other racial groups’ participation in medical studies and clinical trials.

“Trust has to be built not only between the doctor and the patient but also between the hospital and the community.”

“Moreover, there should be efforts to recruit minority patients by having diverse staff and ensuring that the language used in the recruitment literature is at the appropriate reading level and translated into the languages common in the community,” Dr. Joseph explained.

“It all comes down to trust and familiarity,” psychologist and founder of InnoPsych Dr. Charmain Jackman tells SurvivorNet.

“Our shared heritage engenders trust and serves as a first step to Black people trusting the medical field. However, there is still so much inherent bias in the way we are trained that if the Black professional is not doing the work of decolonizing (i.e., removing bias) their practice, my guess is that trust will be hard to keep, and the Black patient may not return for care,” Dr. Jackman adds.

Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.

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