K-Edge-Inspired Selenomelanin Hydrogel: An X-Ray Filtering Biomaterial for Skin Protection in Radiotherapy.

Radiotherapy is widely employed in cancer treatment, yet its inevitable side effects, particularly radiation dermatitis (RD), remain a significant concern. Numerous studies focus on alleviating RD symptoms, but approaches to minimize the radiation dose to the skin are underexplored. Shielding skin-damaging photons (10-20 keV) holds promise for skin dose reduction; however, this strategy is hindered by inadequate shielding efficiency of current RD biomaterials and overshielding by conventional high-Z materials which attenuate therapeutic high-energy photons.