Clinical trials might be a cancer patient’s last chance to get better.
But some former patients of Duke University Health System claim trials administered to them were flawed, and maybe even harmful.
Twelve plaintiffs sued Duke and its health system, naming five doctors in the suit. The patients had been enrolled in a trial that used genetic tests to predict the best chemotherapy treatments for lung cancer.
Former oncology professor Anil Potti, who helped develop the science behind the genetic testing, was named in the suit.
Potti resigned in November from Duke’s Institute for Genome Science and Policy and the School of Medicine after allegations were made that he falsified some of his academic credentials.
“Duke conducted clinical trials on cancer patients that should never have occurred,” said Thomas Henson Jr., the plaintiffs’ attorney, in an email.
UNC School of Law professor Richard Saver said there’s been an uptick in cases involving clinical trials in recent years, but not necessarily an uptick in wins for plaintiffs.
“Many of the patients are so ill that even if there had been credible issues of claim, it’d be hard to show that patients suffered any additional harm (because of the clinical trials),” Saver said. “The law here does not generously award damages for physical or emotional pain.”
Mary Jane Gore, spokeswoman for Duke Medicine, said the university and health system could not comment on active litigation.