A breast cancer patient who underwent 28 serious radiation treatments with the risk of side effects was only informed after 25 sessions that her doctors had made a mistake… by treating the wrong breast.
“The patient was informed about the error and its possible consequences. “A new treatment plan has been proposed to treat the breast that should have been treated,” the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) reported in a press release reported by France 3 on Friday.
On June 27, ASN was informed of an error in the treatment of a patient suffering from cancer in the right breast.
According to French media, the woman would normally have to undergo 28 sessions of local radiotherapy to try to destroy any cancer cells that would have remained in place after the operation.
However, due to an error in “contouring” the false breast during treatment preparation, the left breast was not targeted, the press release said.
Only after 25 sessions spread over 25 days did his treating doctors realize their mistake, France 3 continued, while the ASN requested a report on the incident in order to identify the causes of the error and prevent it from being repeated in the future.
Due to the “overdose in the incorrectly treated region,” the patient is at risk of serious side effects, including in particular the appearance of a new type of cancer induced by radiation therapy, according to French media.