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UK cancer patients being 'cleared off'
Published on Sun, Apr 08, 2007 at 23:37, Updated on Mon, Apr 09, 2007 at 00:19 in 
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INHUMAN TREATMENT: Cancer patients are being given unnecessary and harmful drug treatment in UK to clear hospital waiting lists.
New Delhi: Thousands of men with prostate cancer are being given unnecessary and potentially harmful drug treatment to clear hospital waiting lists, a leading cancer specialist told The Daily Mail.
Oncologist Chris Hamilton claims the "crazy" system of Government targets means prostate patients often head the queue for radiotherapy treatment - even when they don't need it - ahead of other cancer patients.
But hospitals face penalties if cancer patients are not given treatment within four weeks, he said.
By giving hormones to some prostate patients, doctors can tick the box saying they've started treatment. This allows them to move prostate patients down the waiting list to make way for other cancer sufferers who need radiation therapy more urgently, he said.
"You're caught in a bind," Hamilton, who works at Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust told the news daily.
"Either you give them unnecessary treatment with hormones and reclassify them or you put them at the front of the queue where they shouldn't really medically be, given that you've got a big waiting list. It's a real challenge to do the right thing by the patient.
"But if you've got a waiting list, you've somehow got to deal with this perverse prioritisation issue" he added.
Hamilton estimates that in UK eight per cent of prostate patients could be getting hormone therapy they don't need.
The drugs can trigger side effects such as erectile dysfunction, loss of libido and gastrointestinal problems. He reveals his "ethical dilemma" during an investigation by BBC Radio Five Live.
With excerpts from the The Daily Mail.
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