Officials at the Ottawa Hospital are starting to notify hundreds of skin cancer patients who got the wrong dose of radiation while receiving treatment at the hospital over a three year period.

Hospital officials say 326 cancer patients who received radiation between November 2004 and November 2007 got 17 per cent less treatment than they were prescribed.

The Chief of Staff at the Ottawa Hospital says the majority of those patients have been notified and many have scheduled follow-up appointments with the hospital and their family doctors.

Now, Dr. Chris Carruthers says the decision to withhold the information when the error was initially discovered might not have been the best choice.

"In retrospect, informing the patients immediately as we knew there may have been a concern, may have been more advantageous but we also wanted to get our facts straight and not create anxiety amongst all 640 patients who were treated," Carruthers told CTV News.

The Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre says the mix-up was a result of human error and happened when a radiation unit used to treat two common skin cancers was moved from the General Campus of the Ottawa Hospital to the Civic Campus in November 2004.

"When the unit was reconstructed in its new location and recalibration took place, there was an error in treatment dose calculation," read a press release issued to the media on Monday.

The centre says the error was discovered during quality control tests in November 2007 and the dose rate was immediately corrected to the appropriate level.

Carruthers says the physicist involved with the mishap has since retired from the hospital and it could be years before doctors know the consequences of the mistake.

"Patients underwent radiation treatment for the cancer but some of those cancers do not respond to radiation, even given the appropriate doses," said Carruthers.

Patients affected by the mistake include those who:

  • Received radiation treatment for a Basal Cell and Squamous Cell carcinomas
  • Were treated between November 2004 and November 2007
  • Were treated at the Civic Campus of the Ottawa Hospital

The hospital says an internal review was ordered immediately after the mistake was discovered and a Toronto medical reviewer was called in to determine the clinical impact of the error

Medical officials are also advising the public that patients who received treatment for any other type of cancer have not been affected by the mix-up.

Concerned patients can call an information line at 613-739-6800 or toll free at 1-866-253-2603.

Were you one of the patients affected by the mix-up? E-mail us at ottawanews@ctv.ca.

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