Mepitel Film for Radiotherapy

Hi Mags.  It was recommended to me by a work colleague who had mentioned that in her cancer support group, the mepitel user was the only one to not suffer radiation burns.  With this recommendation, I was also pretty keen to give it a go.  It delayed my treatment by a week as the hospital had to order it in.  There also needed to be a slight adjustment of my radiation settings to accommodate it.  However, the nurses were very supportive and keen to see the results as they had had little experience of it. It was applied and left on over a large region of my left chest, breast and lower neck region.  It stayed pretty well in place, though did get regular checking by the nurses and a bit of patching here and there over the six week period.  I wasn't sure what to expect or what might be considered 'normal' but into about the fourth week, the nurses frequently commented how well my skin was 'holding up' as it continued to do to the end of the treatment.  By the end of six weeks, I certainly had some swelling and tenderness of the breast (almost reassuring as it let me know that something had happened) but my skin was absolutely fine, perhaps just the faintest bit pink.  It certainly gets a big tick from me.

I have this film on now for my radiation. I have only had 5 rounds of radiation and have been told that I will still be expecting the redness to come in around round 10 but less burning due to the film. It is meant to help with friction. The nurses tell me that there have been good results with people who have the film on. 

Thank you @Fiona2 and @LeafBeetle, I will give it a go.

@Fiona2 it is encouraging to hear your results. I spoke to my specialist today and he mentioned similar areas for the film.

Good luck @LeafBeetle with your remaining treatment.

Cheers,

Hi Maggs44
I used Mepitel and it was amazing. No radiotherapy burns at all. I exercised post treatment days and had minimal side effects.

I have radiotherapy ahead of me.  In september after Chemo. This sounds promising, Where do you get it? Fiona2 said she had to wait for the hospital to get it. Is it available at the chemist? Or on a prescription?

Hi, unfortunately due to covid-19 I can’t use mepitel film as it takes too long for nurses to put on.  @abbydog you tell your radiation nurses in advance and they organise it I believe. 

Oh Mags44, how disappointing that you couldn’t have the mepitel film. I had my last radiation treatment today and am only a little pink. I don’t have any pain but do have a slight itch where the film has been peeling off. The doc is happy with the results so far. I will see how it continues to go over the next few weeks after radiation has finished. Hopefully the gel works well for you. All the best.

Thanks @LeafBeetle, I am really happy that the film worked well for you - great news!  Congratulations on finishing your treatment too! 

Hi @Mags44 I finished radiation 2 weeks ago today with only a bit of redness at the end. But it keeps on giving! The armpit was getting redder and a bit sore where the node surgery was done and I thought it was getting infected there too last weekend. These things always happen on a weekend, don’t they. I started putting on Bepanthen antiseptic cream like had been suggested by someone  here and it cleared up in a couple of days. During my 15 sessions  I only used Moogoo udder moisturiser and body wash. Because of Covid19 (I  think) only saw the radiation oncologist once,in the middle of treatment , had initial visit via zoom meeting and he rang me on last Monday, two days early, for follow up appointment. 

I started Radiation in January this year. I was advised to use the Mepitel film during radiation treatment at my Planning appointment.  The film was placed on my skin 2 days after treatment started.  This gave me a sense of protection from the radiation.  I had the film completely changed only once during treatment, with a few repair patches and trims throughout the treatment (4 weeks).  I found this film to adhere well to my skin.  It appeared to protect my skin from any bad burning, although my skin was still red, it was nowhere near as bad as I expected it would get with the film on.  

I did have problems with it itching, but my treatment was in the hot summer months which seem to make it worse for the itchiness (I found a cool wet tea towel over the area helped to relieve the itching). The only thing that I would advise is that I was told the radiation staff to keep the film on until it naturally started to peel from your body, as it had formed a protective skin.  It is not always the case that the film will peel off itself, my film was very hard to remove, even with hot water and sorbolene.  

Another issue I had with the film was that there was a small gap around the areola and the nipple area.  In my case, this caused sweat to build up under the film in this area.  You need to be careful with this as I started to form an infection in that area a few weeks after treatment had stopped, which got quite bad.  I was told at the time by my Breast Care Nurse that this was not a common occurrence.  Several weeks later she informed me of other cases of the same thing happening, and that radiation staff should be made aware if this happens after treatment has finished, that it may require just the film around the nipple being removed to prevent this problem from happening.  Although this is what happened to me, it may not be common in others, but it was quite scary (over a long weekend without any treatment available from radiation staff), so would like to let others know about this.  

This Mepitel film was supplied by the Radiation staff at the local hospital where I was being treated, you might like to check this with the staff where you are being treated.  Another bit of advice with the film, is that when showering you need to be careful of water getting on the film as if water comes over your shoulder, it can form water bubbles under the film which can make it start to peel, I just pushed out the water and gently pushed back any of the film, which seemed to adhere enough until I could see the radiation staff again. Washing hair is a harder experience, I found something that worked for me was to place a towel or tea towel from your upper back, over your shoulder, to over the whole of your breast, the towel may get wet, but it gave a good protection to the film.  Hope this helps.