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Radiotherapy:
serious but preventable adverse effects

Reporting adverse effects suffered by a patient undergoing radiotherapy means that possible errors are remedied faster and won't be repeated on other patients.

Radiotherapy consists of treating a patient with ionising radiation. It can sometimes cause serious, even fatal, adverse effects, especially in the case of overdose or an error in which area of the body is to be treated.

The French Nuclear Safety Authority has made commitments in favour of more transparent communications, in particular concerning abnormal therapeutic radiation incidents, which have been made public since 2005.

In April 2006, the death of a young woman, following an accidental overexposure resulting from a miscalculation that was identified during the second radiotherapy session, was made public. Other radiotherapy errors in France were disclosed, many of which resulted from of an anomaly in data transmission or a data entry error, generally leading to an overdose. Complications may arise early, or can also appear much later, leading to irreversible lesions which gradually get worse.

Serious early or delayed adverse effects of radiotherapy observed in a patient should be seen as a warning of a possible overdose. Reporting them quickly means that possible errors can be corrected faster, and not repeated on other patients.

©Prescrire March 2007

Source: "Radiothérapie : des décès évitables" Rev Prescrire 2007 ; 27 (281) : 194-195.

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