The next of kin of a number of patients who were treated with an alternative cancer therapy by two doctors in the mid-west are to meet Department of Health officials next week to discuss their concerns about the treatment. Eithne Donnellan, Health Correspondent, reports.
The meeting, in Dublin on Friday, will discuss the treatment administered in Killaloe, Co Clare, by Dr William Porter and Dr Paschal Carmody.
Dr Porter is an American doctor who was struck off for gross negligence in California, and Dr Carmody is a GP who was recently struck off the medical register in this State after being found guilty by a Medical Council fitness-to-practise committee of professional misconduct.
The two men had been working together up to a year ago at Dr Carmody's East Clinic in Killaloe, providing a €20,000 light therapy for cancer patients. However, they have since parted, and Dr Porter is now providing the cytoluminescent therapy, or CLT, at premises in Ballina, Co Tipperary, which is just across the Shannon from Killaloe.
Former patients claim they were led to believe the treatment would cure cancer, but it did not.
The council's solicitors have written to the Garda about Dr Porter, and the council says it believes gardaí are investigating. However, it is not clear whether an investigation is in progress.
None of the people who have contacted this newspaper with complaints about Dr Porter has been asked yet to make statements to the Garda.
A review of 48 patients treated with CLT in Killaloe in late 2002 and early 2003 found the treatment to be "a qualified failure". Seventeen were dead within six months. There was also a high incidence of after-effects, with some patients feeling it had made their condition worse.
The review, published in a US medical journal, said that Dr Carmody was involved in the treatment of half the group of 48, and that those he was involved with fared worst.
As a result of the study's publication, the Medical Council asked gardaí in Killaloe to investigate Dr Porter. It said that because Dr Porter was not a registered doctor it was not in a position to investigate him itself.
The council's solicitors, McDowell Purcell, wrote to the gardaí in Killaloe on February 24th to report Dr Porter and seek an investigation.
"The council understands that the matter is currently being investigated by An Garda Síochána," the council said in a statement.
"The Department of Health and Children is aware of the loophole in the Act allowing a doctor to engage in the practice of medicine without registration. The council understands that amending legislation is being prepared," it added.
A woman whose husband died of cancer some time after being treated by Dr Porter will be among the group meeting the Department of Health next week. She claims Dr Porter said he could see her husband's tumour "dispersing" after his treatment. Dr Porter denies this.