
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, September 30, 1993                   TAG: 9309300195
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: LONDON                                LENGTH: Short

COMPUTER ERROR BLAMED FOR CANCER DEATHS

Errors in a computer program may have contributed to the deaths of dozens of cancer patients given radiation in doses lower than required for therapy, an inquiry concluded Wednesday.

The 1,045 patients underwent radiation therapy for cancer at North Staffordshire Hospital in Stoke-on-Trent, 135 miles north of London, from 1982 to 1991.

All received doses of radiation up to 35 percent less than prescribed. Radiation experts Drs. Thelma Bates and David Ash concluded after reviewing all 1,045 cases that an "adverse effect was possible" for 492 patients.

Of those, 401 died. The 91 still alive all have suffered a recurrence of their cancer.

"It is impossible to be sure how many patients have died because of the underdosages and how many would have died anyway," the doctors said in their report.

- Associated Press

by CNB