Update: Tattoos and Cancer

This week it’s time to update prior memos given. The first is a case study on tattoos. It seems people, especially young people, are wearing a lot more ink then they used to. I’ve written about the relationship between tattoos and cancer, but didn’t find enough data to make a recommendation. This memo is about a recent case study on tattoos and lymphoma. Or so the physician thought.

A woman noticed a couple of lumps under her armpits. She waited a couple of weeks but when they didn’t go away, she went to the doctor. The doctor examined her. The lumps were swollen lymph nodes. They did a scan of her upper body and found more lymph nodes, similarly swollen, a condition usually consistent with lymphoma. When they excised the lymph nodes, they were surprised to find that they were full of ink. Black tattoo ink. She had gotten a large tattoo on her back some 15 years prior and another one recently. No cancer, just an extreme reaction to the ink.

Skin is live tissue and it’s part of the immune system. As the physician told the media, this was an extreme immune response to an invasion by a foreign substance. The white blood cells did what they do and sequestered the ink in the lymph nodes. Why? The physicians couldn’t explain. The question is will it happen more frequently with more tattoos in the future? Only time will tell. But if you have a tattoo, this is another reason to get any lumps checked immediately.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

Reference: Ann Intern Med. 2017. DOI: 10.7326/L17-0424.