Up to 70 cancer patients being treated at Sydney's prestigious St
Vincent's Hospital have received significantly less than the recommended
dose of a chemotherapy drug.
The under-dosage began in 2012, but it is only now that St Vincent's has begun to inform surviving patients and their families.
For
three years, up to 70 patients suffering from head or neck cancer were
all given the same incorrect, low dose of the drug carboplatin by one of
the hospital's medical oncologists, Dr John Grygiel.
The drug's protocol was approved nearly a decade ago by the NSW Cancer Institute.
It recommends a variable dosage according to the patient's kidney test, age and sex.
For the most common head and neck cancer treatments, the dose is usually between 200 and 300 milligrams.
Yet Dr Grygiel prescribed the same flat, 100 mg for all head and neck patients.
"I
think that he felt that the dose he prescribed was genuinely effective
and caused less side effects for patients," Dr Richard Gallagher, the
director of cancer services at St Vincent's stated.
"I still don't understand where the mechanism or thought came from."
"I'm not happy that this has gone on. I freely admit there's clearly a breakdown in clinical governance."
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