This commonly prescribed cancer drug was supposed to help save his life, instead it killed him
CBC
When Dr. Anil Kapoor was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer in January his prognosis was positive, and his family was hopeful treatment would buy him several more years.
But weeks later, the 58-year-old Burlington, Ont., resident was dead — killed not by the cancer, say doctors, but by the commonly prescribed cancer drug Fluorouracil (5-FU) that was supposed to help save his life.
"It was honestly a cruel rollercoaster of emotions," Anil's son, Akshay Kapoor, told Go Public. "I just feel like we were robbed of time together."
5-FU, used since the 1970s to treat many cancers including colorectal, stomach, breast and cervical cancer, can be toxic to certain patients.
Some provinces now pre-screen for genetic variants — differences in people's DNA — that can lead to serious illness and even death.
But those tests may be giving some cancer patients and their families a false sense of security; failing to flag some of the people who could get sick or die from 5-FU, say experts.
Anil was pre-screened and got the all clear to receive the drug. Just a few days after his first and only dose, he went from being well enough to work to being bedridden.
"He started vomiting and feeling extremely nauseated. And then within 24 hours, he had inflammation in the mouth and throat. He could not eat or drink anything and he was also having profound diarrhea," brother Scott Kapoor told Go Public.
Three weeks later, on Feb. 28, Anil died. More testing later revealed he had a genetic variant that wasn't included in the pre-screening.
Anil's family says they were stunned to learn that current pre-screening guidelines are based on studies that largely leave out populations that aren't white, a known problem based on medical studies they found from North America and other parts of the world.
"We're shocked that this is allowed to happen in Canada," said Scott.
Anil was a doctor — a urologist and head of transplants at St. Joseph's Healthcare, a hospital in Hamilton. His younger brothers are also doctors. Scott is an emergency room physician and the other surviving brother, Dr. Sunil Kapoor, is an anesthesiologist.
Even with all their medical knowledge, Scott says they'd never heard about the risks of 5-FU because cancer treatment is very specialized.
So, since Anil's death, his brothers have been scouring medical journals and speaking with researchers across Canada and around the world to find out why the medical system isn't doing more to inform and protect patients.
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