Doctor guilty of misconduct over cancer vaccine
A medical specialist was yesterday found guilty of misconduct for using an experimental vaccine treatment not registered by the Health Department on a doctor's wife suffering cancer.
The Medical Council reprimanded oncologist Dr Bernard Chan Wan-bun for disregarding his 'professional responsibility to treat or care' for his patient, Maisie Ching May-yee who died in 2000.
It upheld the complaint by Ching's husband, Dr Richard Loh Kok-siong, head of paediatric immunology at Princess Margaret Hospital in Perth, Western Australia, that Dr Chan gave her a vaccine without explaining its nature, efficacy, risks or alternative treatment.
Council chairman Dr Lee Kin-hung said they found Dr Chan also did not obtain the patient's 'proper informed' consent.
'Prior to 1999 Dr Chan had no experience in treating renal [kidney] cancer with this vaccine but these facts were not disclosed to the patient or family,' he said.
'Instead the patient had been told that previous results had been obtained.'
He said the council recognised advances in medicine were based on pioneering research but it was necessary to adhere to strict ethical codes.
Dr Chan is the only person in the SAR who carries out the experimental vaccine treatment for fighting cancers.
The procedure involves extracting tumour cells which are manipulated in a laboratory.
The cells are then injected into the patient to stimulate an immune response.
Ching, a Boston-based businesswoman, was diagnosed with advanced renal caner in December 1999 and died in April 2000.
Defence counsel Andrew Macrae said the judgment was likely to have an adverse affect on Mr Chan's reputation and the programme.
'He believed what he was doing was in the patient's best interests,' Mr Macrae said.
