If you ever make the analogy to a sunburn when explaining to women the symptoms of acute dermatitis they may experience with breast irradiation, those with darkly pigmented skin may assume they’re in the clear. This look back at 325 women receiving breast radiation assessed the impact of pigmented skin (Fitzpatrick IV+) on toxicity. While Black women were less likely to experience physician-reported grade 2-3 acute dermatitis and less likely to use topical steroids, pigmented skin was significantly associated with higher odds of developing grade 2-3 late hyperpigmentation. | Purswani, Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 2023