CHU of Nantes : the investigation into the suspicious death is classified without continuation

Health 10 September, 2017


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Published the 10.09.2017 at 13: 30



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CHU of Nanteslymphomedécès

Ten months after the suspicious deaths of 3 patients treated for lymphoma at the university hospital of Nantes, the parquet de Paris has decided to close the investigation without further action. A source close to the dossier have indicated that it ” has not revealed any criminal offence, or within the medical teams of the hospital centre, or in the laboratories which commercialized the Endoxan “. These deaths would be linked to a ” hazard therapy “.

These deaths were reported between November 10 and November 13, 2016. A 4th patient had also presented the cardiac complications, but it was released. All were hospitalized at the CHU of Nantes for the benefit ” of a course of intensive chemotherapy with autograft “.

This protocol consists of administering a treatment for 5 days, and then to perform a transplant to “rebuild” the stock of white blood cells and platelets of the patients. The 3 patients who died between the ages of 61 to 65 years, as well as the 4th patient under 40 years of age, were treated with cyclosphosphamide. This anti-cancer is used for more than 20 years in many pathologies cancer.

A protocol called into question

But as a precaution, the department of Health had recommended the discontinuation of this protocol. He had then asked the teams to hematology use of melphalan, an alternative that has many stock-outs. Before this recommendation, doctors of the centres of anti-cancer in Nantes, as elsewhere, reserved the this medicine to patients suffering from myeloma (a cancer of the bone marrow) who may not receive other therapies.

A therapeutic choice that is not at the origin of the deaths, concluded the investigators of the pole santé publique du Tribunal de Grande Instance of Paris. According to their investigations, no abnormality was detected among the lots administered. The laboratory has also committed any offence. Conclusions similar to those of the general Inspectorate of social Affairs (Igas).

The investigation for ” involuntary homicide and involuntary injury with ITT for more than three months “, was therefore closed on the 17th of July last by the court.