Management of radiation dermatitis.

e20652 Background: Acute radiation dermatitis (RD) is a potentially distressing adverse event resulting from radiation therapy. RD significantly impairs patient compliance and quality of life and can lead to interruption in treatment. While several topical agents and dressings are used to treat RD, there is great variation in management among practitioners due to limited evidence-based recommendations. We aim to define the complex prophylaxis and treatment patterns for acute RD in the United States (US) to recognize if these patterns are associated with evidence-based guidelines. Methods: A Patterns of Care Survey of the current management of radiation dermatitis was conducted from August 2014 to December 2014 across the United States. The results were compared with the Multinational Association for Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC) guidelines. The questions were designed to evaluate demographics of responders, their training and comfort in the management radiation dermatitis, and their patterns of care regarding treatment. Results: The MASCC panel strongly recommends the prophylactic use of gentle washing with water which 53.29% of participants encouraged. However, practitioners also recommended the use of Aloe Vera prophylactically (53.97%) and for Grade 1 RD (47.26%), both strongly discouraged by the panel based on several trials demonstrating its lack of efficacy. While MASCC makes no recommendations for emollients, they are utilized to treat Grade 1 RD by 74.25% of practitioners. The prophylactic use of topical steroids is strongly recommended by the MASCC, although only 30.14% of surveyed practitioners utilize them for this purpose, while 30.41% using them to treat Grade 1. The panel makes a weak recommendation for the prophylactic use of silver sulfadiazine cream which is used by 72.35% of participants for Grade 2 and 3 RD. Conclusions: There is a wide disparity between evidenced-based guidelines for preventing and treating RD and its practice in the US. Better education of the oncology and dermatology community and adherence to evidence-based guidelines may improve patient compliance and quality of life.