Patients given extra chemotherapy at the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust

Treatment found to have no medical use as they had wrong type of cancer

Administered by Margaret King and Mark Churn in defiance of guidelines

Exposed patients to horrific side effects and 29 died before learning of error

By Paul Bentley, Katherine Faulkner And Lucy Osborne For The Daily Mail

Published: 17:30 EST, 13 October 2015

Doctors put 55 patients through needless and agonising chemotherapy, the Mail can reveal today.

The cancer victims, one as old as 83, were kept in the dark about the NHS blunder for six years. Twenty-nine died without being told.

The extra chemotherapy was of no medical use because they had a type of cancer that needed different treatment. But it exposed them to horrific side effects including lost fertility, terrible nausea and higher risk of fatal infections.

Were you involved or do you know any of the patients involved? Contact investigations@dailymail.co.uk or telephone 0203 615 1759

A report into the debacle concluded there was ‘no evidence, rationale or explanation as to why the treatment was undertaken’. A source described it as a ‘macabre experiment’.

The NHS insists no one died as a direct result – but a clinical trial suggests a 5 per cent mortality rate and watchdogs confirmed last night that least one patient suffered long-term harm.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said patients should always be told at the earliest opportunity when things go wrong, adding: ‘Being open and learning lessons is a vital part of making our NHS the safest healthcare system in the world.’

The extra chemotherapy was administered by two doctors at the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust in defiance of strict guidelines.

Incredibly, the oncologists – Margaret King and Mark Churn – are both still treating cancer patients and appear not to have faced disciplinary action. But the whistleblower who exposed the scandal was suspended after being accused of bullying one of the doctors.

SNIP