This is the story of a 32-year-old American who goes to a hospital in California to monitor the progress of her Cervical cancer. On arrival, the doctors offered him an examination by PET-scan (or Positron Emission Tomography), a medical imaging technique that involves injecting the body with a radioactive product, FDG, a chemical element that only remains for 2 hours in the body. This preferably binds to cancer cells, and this allows medical personnel to identify the possible presence of tumors or metastasis.
Bad news: the images collected by PET-scan clearly highlight two areas of about 2 centimeters in diameter in the iliac regions of the patient (on each side of the lower abdomen, near the iliac bone, therefore) . The medical team – who thinks they are in the presence of two incipient tumors – therefore decide to intervene and proceed to the ablation of about 40 lymph nodes.
Except that after the operation, the anatomo-pathological analysis reveals that in reality, these nodes were not invaded by metastases … but by ink. Indeed: the patient has 14 tattoos on the legs, all colored. And the ink from the tattoos migrated to the lower areas of the abdomen.
The authors (surgeons and physicians from the city of Irvine, California, who report this particular case in the scientific journal Obstetrics & Gynecology) speak of “false-positive”: the PET-scan was misled by the presence of pigments, which falsified the final diagnosis. “In the case of permanent tattoos, the colored pigments can migrate through the lymphatic vessels into the lymph nodes,” said Dr. Ramez Eskander, the oncologist who followed the patient. Even after a tattoo removal with the laser, the pigments can remain in depth. “
“It is important that tattooed patients notify doctors even before the start of treatment, in order to avoid such mistakes, he adds. Especially if the tattoo is colored, large and / or located in the body. area affected by cancer cells. ” Fortunately for the patient, the removal of these 40 lymph nodes did not have any consequences on her health. And the authors of this report made it clear that this was a completely exceptional case.
Did you know ? Cancer is a disease that dates back to Antiquity.
