Judge dismisses suit in VA cancer treatment

Judge dismisses suit in VA cancer treatment
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Dec 12, 2007 13:12:22 EST

ALBANY, N.Y. — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by the widows of five cancer patents who were improperly enrolled in drug experiments at an upstate Veterans Affairs hospital.

U.S. District Court Senior Judge Thomas McAvoy noted there was no proof the veterans, all terminally ill, died prematurely or suffered more from the experimental drugs. He faulted the conduct of the drug studies at Stratton VA Medical Center but said under existing law there was no basis for damages to the patients’ families.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Goodwin had requested dismissal of the case. In court papers, she argued that while most of the veterans were fraudulently enrolled in drug studies, ineligible because of various medical factors, an oncologist who reviewed the VA data concluded some tumors shrank and some patients probably lived longer. There was no proof they would have done better with standard chemotherapy, she said.

In 2005, researcher Paul Kornak, who admitted forging medical records at the hospital from 1999 to 2003 to make dozens of patients eligible to participate in drug studies, was sentenced to 71 months in federal prison for mail fraud, making a false statement, and criminally negligent homicide in the 2001 death of Air Force veteran James DiGeorgio, 71.

DiGeorgio died a few weeks after participating in a drug research program for stomach cancer, though he suffered from impaired liver and kidney function that would have disqualified him, prosecutors said.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/12/ap_cancersuit_071212/



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