Big Toe toenails turning black after radiation

Chemo drugs can cause toe nails to go black. I wonder if your treatment includes any chemo in its protocol or if you have/are taken supplements or medications for other purposes. I never heard of PCa RT causing such effects.

VascodaGama said:

Is any medication included in the treatment protocol?

Chemo drugs can cause toe nails to go black. I wonder if your treatment includes any chemo in its protocol or if you have/are taken supplements or medications for other purposes. I never heard of PCa RT causing such effects.

As always, Vasco is correct: many chemo drugs cause nails to discolor, and sometimes crumble and even fall out completely.  This is most common with Adriamycin, but many others do it as well.  IF the cause is a chemo agent, the nails virtually always return to normal within a few months following the last application.

I have known friends who received radiation and had their hair fall out, one guy the next day.  He had a rare cancer inside his nose, and was radiated at Emory one afternoon while an impatient.  The next morning, half his beard had fallen out on his pillow (he had never received any form of chemo at that point).   

Ergo, I would not be at all surprised to learn that radiation can cause nail damage as well.  I studied radiation health while a sub sailor in the Navy, and of course most radiation effects are proximity-linked:  radiation, at least short-term, is mostly going to be linked to adjacent tissues.  The adage taught to reactor and nuclear weapons technicians is time, distance, shielding.  Spend as little time as possible in a hot location, stay as far away as the work allows, and maximize shielding while working.   And the groin is a few feet away from the feet of course.  So unless you got radiation to bone or tissue in the lower leg, discoloration from radiation would seem improbable and difficult to understand.

I hope you share further details and what you learn,

max