Cancer Stories: The Art Of Oncology

"Dose-Painting," by Shivani Sud: a resident creates visual narratives within two patients’ dose clouds.   TRANSCRIPT Narrator: 'Dose Painting' by Shivani Sud, MD. (10.1200/JCO.21.01524) When asked to describe radiation oncology, my first recollection is watching chart rounds as a medical student. Sitting along the conference room periphery, I observed as dosimetrists projected patients' scans, residents presented histories, and attending physicians reviewed treatment plans. Far from the usual hospital rounds with plans consisting of procedures, consults, and medication changes—here, treatment plans are scans overlaid with intricate colorful lines denoting the amount of radiation traversing internal structures to arrive at the target (ie, tumor) volume. This dose visualization is our primary method of conceptualizing and articulating radiotherapy treatments. Recent technological advances enable delivery of radiation with immense precision to the extent we dub some techniques as “dose painting.”1 Starting with