Health $ Lifestyle

Cancer-stricken woman, 68, has months to live after NHS doctors missed a 3cm tumour clearly visible on scan – and failed to check her properly for two years

A woman has just months to live after doctors missed a golf ball-sized tumour clearly visible on a scan – then dismissed her concerns for two years as the cancer spread.

In the two decades beforehand, Anne Shaw, 68, had been treated successfully for breast and ovarian cancer, which put her at higher risk of having cancer again.

But doctors at St James’s University Hospital in Leeds failed to spot a 3.3cm tumour on her ovary during a routine scan in summer 2019.

And they then failed to take her seriously when she returned to the hospital in February 2020 complaining of symptoms of ovarian cancer and raising concerns it may have returned.

‘The registrar I saw had clearly not read my medical records,’ Anne said. ‘He felt my stomach area briefly and told me I was fine, despite what I was telling him about my history.’

In the two decades beforehand, Anne Shaw, 68, had been treated successfully for breast and ovarian cancer, which put her at higher risk of having cancer again

In the two decades beforehand, Anne Shaw, 68, had been treated successfully for breast and ovarian cancer, which put her at higher risk of having cancer again

But doctors at St James’s University Hospital in Leeds failed to spot a 3.3cm tumour (pictured) on her ovary during a routine scan in summer 2019

It was only after she went back to her GP in September 2021 that she was fast-tracked to a cancer specialist and the cancer was finally diagnosed that autumn. By that time, it had spread over large parts of her bowel.

‘The consultant said the hospital had a “duty of candour” which meant he had to explain that the tumour could actually be seen in the scan from 2019,’ Anne said. ‘He said if they had acted at the time, it could probably have been dealt with easily by chemotherapy and monitoring.’

Now the former workplace trainer and assessor, from Leeds, is calling for the scans of cancer patients to be double-checked by two specialists to prevent others suffering the same fate.

Because the cancer had progressed so much by the time she was diagnosed, Anne required a major six-hour operation to remove a large section of her bowel and to have a stoma fitted.

Despite the life-changing surgery and gruelling chemotherapy afterwards, doctors were not able to eliminate all the cancer and told Anne there was nothing more they could do.

She is now devastated that the remaining time she has left has been marred by complications from her stoma surgery, including pain, hernias, fatigue and a very limited diet.

‘This has ruined what I’ve got left of my life, it’s absolutely devastating. The fact I’m so tired all the time and I have a stoma means that I can’t do many of the things I’d have wanted to,’ Anne said.

‘I’m angry, disappointed and frustrated. I try to get on with things as best I can, and not think “what if” all the time, but it’s very hard.

Anne said she was taking life day-by-day but hoped to be able to celebrate her 25th wedding anniversary later this year with husband Louis (pictured), 74, a retired taxi driver

Anne said she was taking life day-by-day but hoped to be able to celebrate her 25th wedding anniversary later this year with husband Louis (pictured), 74, a retired taxi driver

She said: 'I just want to be treated like a human being, to feel like someone from the hospital is listening to me and cares about the impact this has had on our lives. And I want to make sure this doesn't happen to anybody else'

She said: ‘I just want to be treated like a human being, to feel like someone from the hospital is listening to me and cares about the impact this has had on our lives. And I want to make sure this doesn’t happen to anybody else’

'My whole life has changed and I have been through all this – but it hasn't solved the problem. The cancer is still there and I don't know how long I have left,' she said

‘My whole life has changed and I have been through all this – but it hasn’t solved the problem. The cancer is still there and I don’t know how long I have left,’ she said

‘I ask myself why I have been subjected to everything I’ve been through, when it wouldn’t have been necessary if somebody had checked the scan, checked my notes or listened to me at the time.

‘My whole life has changed and I have been through all this – but it hasn’t solved the problem. The cancer is still there and I don’t know how long I have left.’

Anne said she was taking life day-by-day but hoped to be able to celebrate her 25th wedding anniversary later this year with husband Louis, 74, a retired taxi driver.

The couple were supported by the law firm Slater and Gordon to settle with the NHS Trust for a six-figure sum – a figure that Louis said ‘will not bring my wife back’.

Anne is disappointed that managers at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust repeatedly refused her requests for a meeting to discuss her concerns or consider her suggestion for improvements to the way scans are reviewed.

She said: ‘I just want to be treated like a human being, to feel like someone from the hospital is listening to me and cares about the impact this has had on our lives. And I want to make sure this doesn’t happen to anybody else.

‘I would like to see a change so that two radiologists have to look at scans like mine together, so they can discuss and assess what they both see.

‘For me, it’s too late. But this could help to save someone else’s life, or at least give them the time or quality of life that I don’t have.’

Clinical negligence specialist lawyer John Lowther, of Slater and Gordon, who managed Anne’s claim against the hospital, said: ‘This is an absolutely shocking case of two opportunities to identify Anne’s cancer being missed – because of the failures to realise it had returned, she now has a much poorer quality of life and is understandably very distressed about living with a stoma.

The disease kills 11 women on average every day in Britain, or 4,000 a year. It also kills three times as many people in the US every year, figures show. When symptoms are caused by ovarian cancer they tend to be persistent, with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommending your GP arrange tests if you experience these symptoms 12 or more times per month

The disease kills 11 women on average every day in Britain, or 4,000 a year. It also kills three times as many people in the US every year, figures show. When symptoms are caused by ovarian cancer they tend to be persistent, with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommending your GP arrange tests if you experience these symptoms 12 or more times per month

‘The past few years have been hugely difficult for Anne and Louis, and what should have been a happy retirement is now a living nightmare for them both.’

He said the hospital should take action to ensure such ‘costly mistakes’ are not repeated and that Anne’s suggestion that scans are checked by two radiologists was ‘very logical’.

‘We would support adoption of this, not just in this particular hospital but across the NHS,’ he said.

After MailOnline approached Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust for comment, chief medical officer Dr Magnus Harrison said: ‘We are deeply sorry for the delay in diagnosing Anne’s cancer and the impact this has caused.

‘As soon as we were aware of the error, we met with Anne and explained we would investigate the reporting discrepancies. This is so we can understand why and how it happened and what we can learn and improve. We have shared the findings from this investigation with Anne and we have shared the learning with our radiologists and radiographers.

‘We apologise that Anne’s requests to meet have not been followed up and we will be contacting Anne as soon as possible to arrange a convenient time to meet.’

WHY OVARIAN CANCER IS CALLED A ‘SILENT KILLER’

About 80 percent of ovarian cancer cases are diagnosed in the advanced stages of the disease.

At the time of diagnosis, 60 percent of ovarian cancers will have already spread to other parts of the body, bringing the five-year survival rate down to 30 percent from 90 percent in the earliest stage.  

It’s diagnosed so late because of its location in the pelvis, according to Dr Ronny Drapkin, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania, who’s been studying the disease for more than two decades.

‘The pelvis is like a bowl, so a tumor there can grow quite large before it actually becomes noticeable,’ Dr Drapkin told MailOnline.

The first symptoms to arise with ovarian cancer are gastrointestinal because tumors can start to press upward.

When a patient complains of gastrointestinal discomfort, doctors are more likely to focus on diet change and other causes than suggest an ovarian cancer screening.

Dr Drapkin said it’s usually not until after a patient endures persistent gastrointestinal symptoms that they will receive a screening that reveals the cancer.

‘Ovarian cancer is often said to be a silent killer because it doesn’t have early symptoms, when in fact it does have symptoms, they’re just very general and could be caused by other things,’ he said.

‘One of the things I tell women is that nobody knows your body as well as you do. If you feel something isn’t right, something’s probably not right.’

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