Cancer treatment centre responsible for more radiation treatment errors

Cancer treatment centre responsible for more radiation treatment errors

The cancer treatment centre where a sixteen-year-old was given 17 overdoses of radiation therapy while she was being treated for a brain tumour has been responsible for a further 46 errors in cancer treatment in the last 20 years.

A Freedom of Information request made by the Scotsman newspaper to NHS Glasgow and Clyde has revealed that the Beatson Oncology Centre in Glasgow had 14 cases of patients being given an overdose and 29 cases where patients were overexposed to radiation during their treatment. The board said that doctors then reduced the amount of radiation they were exposed to in later sessions, exposing them to the correct amount overall. .

A spokeswoman for the health board said that there had been about 29,000 courses of radiotherapy treatment at the Beatson since 1985: "Of these 29,000 courses of radiotherapy treatment, 46 incidents occurred in which the treatment given was different than planned and required to be reported," she said. All the patients have been informed of the errors and all cases of mistaken over-exposure to radiation are reported to ministers.

Cancer centre in radiation row had 46 more blunders (The Scotsman, 13 May 2006)