DENVER — Whether patients want them or not, tattoos are part of many cancer treatments.
Radiation therapists tattoo little black dots on patients to guide radiation treatment.
The tattoos are crucial to the treatment because they act as a map for the radiation therapist.
“To be able to position a patient back into the exact position that they need to be in, we have to have some way to get them in that position,” said Lindsay Esquibel, a radiation therapist at Porter Adventist Hospital in Denver.
The positioning is important because the radiation needs to be targeted and exact to be effective. That, Esquibel said, is where the tattoos come in.
For as long as she’s been in the field, she said this is how radiation therapy has been delivered.
“Typically, any breast patient would need tattoos,” Esquibel said. “Any pelvis patient, any patient with anything in the abdomen. Sometimes our patients with head or neck cancer get a tattoo.”
The tattoos are small but they are permanent and that’s the problem for a lot of people who come through the cancer center at Porter Hospital. Esquibel said she has seen many patients struggle with that aspect of their treatment.
“For breast patients, we do have to put a mark in the center of their chest. So if they ever wanted to wear a lower cut shirt, [the tattoo] would be showing,” she said. “They cry and say ‘I don’t want a permanent mark. I don’t want something that’s going to remind me of this.'”
Studies have shown that skin marks pose a significant psychosocial challenge for some women on their way to recovery. Radiation Oncologist Rebekah Maymani said she has seen that to be true in her work at Porter Hospital.
“At a time when we’re moving on with recovery and survivorship and getting back to normalcy, those marks can serve as a reminder and bring them back to the past instead of moving forward with the present and the future,” Maymani said.
Porter Hospital is part of Centura Health, Colorado’s largest health care system.
The idea at Centura Health was to improve radiation therapy for its cancer patients by eliminating radiotherapy tattoos altogether. So earlier this year, Centura brought in new technology to four local hospitals, including Porter
Porter Adventist Hospital, Parker Adventist Hospital, Littleton Adventist Hospital and Longmont United Hospital are the first in the state to incorporate the technology that uses 3D imaging to map the skin surface and guide radiation treatment without having to use skin marks.
The technology is called AlignRT and eliminating the need for radiotherapy tattoos is just one of its advantages. It also saves time and allows for greater accuracy than traditional radiation therapy devices.
“Providing tattooless radiation therapy is one way we can reduce anxiety and help patients focus on other aspects of their cancer care,” said Dr. Maymani.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS | Next with Kyle Clark
