[ RadSafe ] Cancer Patients Exposed to High Radiation

[Sandy Perle]

Cancer Patients Exposed to High Radiation 

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.

----------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle 
Senior Vice President, Technical Operations 
Global Dosimetry Solutions, Inc. 
2652 McGaw Avenue
Irvine, CA 92614

Tel: (949) 296-2306 / (888) 437-1714 Extension 2306 
Fax:(949) 296-1144

Global Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com/ 
Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com/