Death Associated with Anticancer Drug: Couldn’t The Patient’s Life Have Been Saved?

Editorial

16:06 JST, March 23, 2026

After being administered with an anticancer drug, one young person lost his life, and two others are in critical condition, having become comatose. What brought about this serious situation? The cause must be identified.

A male aged between 10 and 19 died last month after receiving treatment for leukemia at the Saitama Prefectural Children’s Medical Center in October last year. The patient had become unable to breathe without assistance due to nerve damage after being administered with an anticancer drug. He received the drug via an intrathecal injection, in which medication is injected into the spine.

Even before this incident, a boy under the age of 10 went through the same procedure in January last year, as did another male aged between 10 and 19 in March. Both are now comatose due to complications.

The hospital initially believed these cases were due to rare side effects of the anticancer drug. However, due to the succession of such serious cases, it launched an internal investigation in November.

During the investigation, the patients’ spinal fluid was examined and vincristine, a drug different from the anticancer drug that was supposed to be injected intrathecally, was detected.

Vincristine is an anticancer drug that is prone to causing neurological damage. An intrathecal injection of this drug is contraindicated, so it must be administered via an intravenous injection.

The hospital determined that the drug may have been introduced either intentionally or by mistake and reported the matter to police earlier this month.

As this is an extremely abnormal situation, the police should conduct a thorough investigation.

Meanwhile, the hospital’s response is difficult to understand. Couldn’t the hospital have taken action before there were a succession of cases? If hospitals simply assume that symptoms rarely seen in patients are side effects, they will be unable to save lives that could have been saved.

Thanks to advances in medical treatment, the 10-year survival rate for childhood leukemia is now nearly 80%. The patients involved in these cases could have been in good health now.

In addition to these three, it has been found that two other patients have paralysis of undetermined cause after receiving intrathecal injections. Vincristine has not been detected, but these cases also need to be investigated thoroughly.

Given the seriousness of the situation, a third party should be commissioned to investigate whether there were any issues with the hospital’s response.

For hospitals providing advanced medical care, it is important to maintain records when handling highly toxic drugs and have multiple staff members cross-check to ensure there are no errors in medication. It may also be necessary to install surveillance cameras.

Only five years ago, a fatal incident occurred at another hospital in which vincristine was mistakenly injected into a patient. There was also a case in which a medical professional allegedly harmed patients intentionally.

Patients entrust their lives to hospitals, leaving themselves vulnerable. Hospitals should keep in mind their duty to protect patients from the various risks that are present at their facilities.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, March 23, 2026)