Surgeon 'could have put breast cancer patients at risk'

1 April 2006

Significant numbers of women may have been put at risk of their breast cancer returning because they were not given the best care at a hospital in the Bradford NHS Trust, according to a cancer statistician.

The claims, based on a data analysis by Michel Coleman, professor of epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, are disputed by the trust. …

The report was commissioned by 'Panorama' after allegations from John Philip, former director of the regional breast screening programme, that women who had breast conservation surgery - the removal of the lump instead of the whole breast - were coming back with a recurrence of their cancer because they had not been given radiotherapy. Michael Baum [UCL Emeritus Professor of Surgery] tells the programme that if radiotherapy does not follow surgery, there is around a 30% chance of the cancer returning.

Sarah Boseley, 'The Guardian'

Surgeon 'could have put breast cancer patients at risk'

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