FDA warns gynecologic device has spread cancer [View all]
Source: USA Today
The US Food and Drug Administration Monday warned against a gynecologic device that has spread cancer in women who thought they had harmless fibroids.
In the last year, two-dozen women have reported that their cancer was made worse by the device, called a power morcellator, which turned a treatable condition into a life-threatening disease.
"We believe that in the vast majority of women, the procedure should not be performed," said Dr. William Maisel, deputy director for science and chief scientist of the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health.
The device is used to pulverize fibroids before removing them through a tiny hole in the abdomen. If any growths are cancerous – which is impossible to determine before surgery – the power morcellation spreads cancer cells throughout the abdomen, virtually guaranteeing that the cancer will become more dangerous.
Opposition to the device has been led by a surgeon, Hooman Noorchashm. Noorchashm, who has repeatedly called for the FDA to institute an outright ban on morcellation, said Monday that he doesn't think the warning goes far enough to protect women like his wife. As long as the device is on the market, women will be vulnerable, he said.wife, Amy Reed, went in for a routine hysterectomy a year ago and came out with stage 4 cancer. Reed, then a doctor at Beth Israel Medical Center in Boston, is now in remission and getting ready to go back to work at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. The two have six children ages 2 to 13.
Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/11/24/fda-warning-power-morcellator-fibroids-cancer/19491165/
It's called practicing for a reason.
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