Features and comment

Features and comment

Showing 1 articles, in Technology

20 October 2020 | 4 minutes

Radiotherapy tattoos can be a painful reminder of cancer – but 3D imaging could be the solution

Every day in the UK over 150 women will be given the devastating news that they have breast cancer. This is the start of a long journey of treatments most likely followed by radiotherapy to the breast or chest wall. What many people might not realise though is that radiographers often use small permanent black ink tattoos in order to position a patient underneath the radiotherapy machine. But new technology, called surface guided radiotherapy (SGRT), uses three dimensional imaging to help radiographers position patients, avoiding the need for tattoos.