Radiation Therapy for Non-melanoma Skin Cancer in Immunosuppressed Patients and Cutaneous Toxicity from This Therapy

Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is a common skin cancer affecting more than 3,000,000 individuals worldwide each year. The risk of SCC is strongly linked with immunosuppressive treatment in organ transplant recipients (OTR). Population-based standard incidence ratios for SCC are increased 65–250-fold and for basal cell carcinomas 10–16-fold in OTR compared with non-transplanted population. Skin cancers in immunocompromised patients tend to be more aggressive and metastasize more frequently. Therefore adjuvant radiotherapy and definitive radiotherapy for surgically incurable cancers plays an important role in the therapeutic options. In this chapter we discuss indications, approaches, planning, efficacy, and side effects of radiation treatment of non-melanoma skin cancer in OTR.