Getting inked usually marks a memory you want to hold onto. But for cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy, the tattoos they receive aren’t about self-expression.
These tiny, barely visible marks help radiation therapists precisely position patients for treatment. While most patients agree to them without issue, few are excited about getting a tattoo, said Jonathan Ortiz, chief radiation therapist at Stamford Health’s Bennett Cancer Center.
“It's often not the best time in that person's life. It's not really a memory they want to have," he said. "So it really goes into that whole psychological aspect of the cancer diagnosis and that constant reminder being on your skin."
Over the past year, however, Ortiz said, Stamford Health has treated all radiation therapy patients without leaving that permanent reminder by instead using cameras, light projections, and 3D modeling.
When using millions of volts of radiation to treat a patient, Ortiz said therapists must be exact. It requires positioning patients the same way every time to attack the cancer without damaging other parts of their body.
Ortiz said typically providers would mark the treatment zone with a set of three small tattoos, no bigger than a beauty mark. The marks would be a starting point, he said, that they can use to triangulate the area they need to treat consistently.
