Background/Aim: We investigated the beneficial effects of drinking tomato juice (TJ) rich in antioxidant carotenoids on irradiated skin following radiotherapy (RT) in breast cancer patients. Patients/Methods: Twenty-three patients agreed to drink TJ (160 g/day for six months) after the completion of RT. Early and late adverse events (AEs) of irradiated skin were evaluated according to the Common Terminology Criteria for AEs and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Global Cosmetic Rating System, respectively. Results: With regard to early AEs, acute radiodermatitis of grade 1 was observed in most patients (22/23) at the end of RT. However, the grade of radiodermatitis rapidly changed to 0, 1 month after RT and starting TJ consumption. With regard to late AEs, most patients were in good or excellent dermal condition. Conclusion: TJ consumption could help in relieving and recovering from early AEs and decreasing the severity of late AEs of irradiated skin. The living body is exposed to radiation in cancer radiotherapy to target and damage cancer cells. There are two known routes to express the effects of radiotherapy (1). One is the direct action of radiation directly damaging the target molecules, and the other is the indirect action. The effectiveness is 30% for the former and 70% for the latter (1). In the indirect action, radiation first acts on water, which makes up about 60-80% of the body producing reactive oxygen species (ROS) that damage DNA (1). Oxidative stress represented by ROS continuously occurs under physiological conditions. However, ROS can also be caused by factors such as smoking, strenuous exercise, radiation, ultraviolet light and air pollutants. In vivo, ROS has the role of removing foreign substances such as bacteria in addition to being associated with an antitumor effect (2). On the other hand, when ROS is produced in excess, it is known to react with biopolymers such as DNA, lipids and proteins and cause dysfunction and canceration of normal cells in the living body (2, 3). Therefore, a mechanism to efficiently eliminate ROS is also important. In vivo, an antioxidant network exists to protect healthy tissues from oxidative stress (4). Antioxidants, such as vitamin C, vitamin E, and carotenoids, one of the antioxidant networks, scavenges free radicals. Ingestion of antioxidants that constitute the antioxidant network into the body is believed to have a positive effect on the oxidative stress state in vivo. Recently, carotenoids in particular, have attracted attention among antioxidants (2). Carotenoids have been reported to be associated with the reduction in the risk of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome and cancer (2). Proactive intake of carotenoids is believed to have beneficial effects on health. Among carotenoids, lycopene has a particularly potent ability to eliminate singlet oxygen, which is a type of ROS. The potency is said to be 3013 This article is freely accessible online.
