M.D. Anderson Cancer Center is possibly the best place to go for treatment of some forms of cancer, but the hospital has been regularly in the news over the past year for all the wrong things: misusing research money, hyping cancer cures–and now with the strange case of a breast-cancer oncologist poisoning another oncologist with whom she was in "a casual sexual relationship," according to the district attorney.
Todd Ackerman and Eric Berger of the Houston Chronicle, who have been keeping close watch on M.D. Anderson and have been responsible for breaking much of the bad news, reported Friday that Ana Maria Gonzalez-Angulo, a breast-cancer oncologist at M.D. Anderson, has been charged with aggravated assault for putting ethylene glycol in the coffee of George Blumenschein, a specialist in lung and head-and-neck cancers.
The chemical, used in antifreeze and in research, is sweet. According to the complaint filed with the district attorney, Blumenschein drank his coffee black, and when he took a sip and his coffee was sweet, he asked Gonzalez-Angulo to get him a cup without sugar. "She urged him to drink up anyway," the Chronicle reports.
"Sixteen hours later, he was taken to an emergency center, where he was found to have central nervous system depression, cardiopulmonary complications and renal failure. He subsequently had to undergo dialysis," Ackerman and Berger report. They report that lawyers for Gonzalez-Angulo denied the charge.
Last September, M.D. Anderson was guilty of what I wrote might be the "worst cancer-cure hype" ever, with a press release that began, "The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center announces the launch of the Moon Shots Program, an unprecedented effort to dramatically accelerate the pace of converting scientific discoveries into clinical advances that reduce cancer deaths." As far as we know, the only part of the Moon Shots program that is real is the press release, but that didn't stop Sanjay Gupta at CNN from round-the-clock hysterical reports that can perhaps best be summed up in his tweet:
BREAKING cure for #cancer close says md anderson. plan to "drastically reduce" cases & deaths n 5yrs! im reporting excl details all day @cnn
In a separate story last year, Ackerman and Berger reported that the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, created with $3 billion of state taxpayer money, was now facing charges that it meddled with peer review to award contracts to preferred candidates. It awarded a $20 million to Lydia Chin at M.D. Anderson, without proper review of the merits of the proposal. Chin is married to Ronald DePinho, M.D. Anderson's president.
More recently, Time magazine reported in a cover story that "it's now possible" to cure cancer. The story mentioned M.D. Anderson favorably multiple times, and the only ad in the story was from M.D. Anderson. That is a clear violation of magazine industry standards for ad placement.
Against this backdrop, the poisoning of one oncologist by another might seem almost insignificant. But I think it could just as well be taken as an indication that there is something rotten at the core of M.D. Anderson.
I've asked before, and I'll ask again: Why has this story received such little national coverage? Ackerman and Berger have done a good job with this story, but they shouldn't be alone on it. M.D. Anderson has a national reputation, and the intrigue surrounding it should be national news.
-Paul Raeburn
Our 17 year old son died of absolute neglect several years ago while at MDA. We had no idea that MDA has sovereign immunity against malpractice.
The only recourse is to go an an arbitration panel, where the maximum award is $100K. If MDA doesn’t award the max the case can go to court. This is what we wanted, because we had presentations to the Texas Medical Board that delineated the neglect. MDA gave us the max. Given that our medical bills were over $300K they still made a profit. Warn everyone who is thinking of taking a child to MDA that they have sovereign immunity vs. malpractice. Our case was highlighted in a Houstonia Magazine article, “Is it Time to Reform Tort Reform”.