Cancer Patients Exposed to High Radiation

[jersonbanks]

Cancer Patients Exposed to High Radiation

Sat Apr 2, 4:25 PM ET

TAMPA, Fla. - Dozens of patients at a cancer treatment center were exposed to radiation levels 50 percent stronger than they were supposed to receive because a radiation machine was improperly installed.

Physicists from the federal Radiological Physics Center detected the error on March 7, but the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute didn't acknowledge it until Friday.

Officials said 77 patients were affected. Twelve have since died.

"Some people were having side effects, but overall, they were within the normal range of side effects of radiation treatments," said the center director, Dr. William Dalton. "We aren't seeing unanticipated levels of side effects."

However, he said it could three months to a year for side effects such as headaches and speech and memory loss to appear.

"We at Moffitt take full responsibility for the programming error," Dalton said.

According to a report by the Florida Bureau of Radiation Control, a physicist calibrating the machine used an incorrect formula.

"They were supposed to have a second physicist independently verify the calibrations of the first physicist," said Bill Passetti, the bureau's chief. "It looks like the second verification wasn't performed, which is a violation of the facility's protocol and procedures."

The state agency fined the center $1,000 on March 24, giving the hospital 30 days to appeal.