Radiation reaction recall following simvastatin therapy: a new observation

A 60-year-old woman was treated postoperatively for carcinoma of the gall bladder with a split course of radiotherapy. The tumour dose (TD) was 61.2 Gy in 34 fractions delivered by an anterior and two lateral wedge fields with 60Co; the Dmax was 70% of TD for the anterior field and 150% of the TD at the thin edge of the wedges. She also underwent 5-FU and leucovorin chemotherapy. No skin reaction was seen during radiotherapy or in 1 year of follow-up. A year after radiotherapy she was treated for hypercholesterolaemia by simvastatin. Within 2-3 days a severe skin and subcutaneous reaction developed in the lateral radiation fields but not in the anterior field. To our knowledge, recall of skin radiation reaction after simvastatin therapy has not been previously reported.