Kerri Fitzgerald

DocwireNews

<p>Radioactivity was detected at an Arizona crematory after a deceased man with pancreatic cancer was incinerated there. The man had undergone <a href="https://proddocwire.wpengine.com/docwire-pick/survival-rates-prostate-cancer/">radiation therapy</a> days before his death and subsequent cremation. A research letter published in <em>JAMA</em> highlights the case.<h2><strong>Radiotherapy leads to contamination</strong></h2><p>According to the case report, a 69-year-old man with a pancreatic tumor was treated with lutetium-177 dotatate, a <a href="https://proddocwire.wpengine.com/docwire-pick/future-of-medicine-picks/new-cancer-radiation-therapy-could-reduce-time-of-treatment-from-minutes-to-seconds/">radioactive treatment</a>, at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona in 2017. He died days later at a different hospital and was cremated five days post-treatment. The hospital where he died reportedly did not notify the crematorium about his radiation treatment. After learning of the patient&rsquo;s death, a safety officer from the Mayo Clinic notified the crematorium. The crematorium was surveyed one-month post-treatment with a Geiger counter. A urine sample from an employee was also analyzed.</p><h2><strong>Radiation exposure</strong></h2><p>Incineration &ldquo;volatilizes&rdquo; radiopharmaceuticals in a dead body, according to the researchers, and radioactive contamination can be &ldquo;inhaled by workers (or released into the adjacent community) and result in greater exposure than from a living patient.&rdquo;</p><p>The Geiger counter picked up a range of radioactivity&mdash;primarily the isotope contained in the medicine the patient received&mdash;on equipment in the crematorium, including the oven, vacuum filter, and bone crusher.</p><p>In addition, a different isotope was detected in the employee&rsquo;s urine, and because he had not undergone a medical procedure using radiopharmaceuticals, the researchers believed that he inhaled the radioactive contaminant while incinerating other bodies.</p><p>There are no federal regulations regarding the cremation of patients who have received nuclear medicine, and state regulation vary. &ldquo;Radiopharmaceuticals present a unique and often overlooked postmortem safety challenge,&rdquo; the authors noted.</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Remember to provide/counsel use of treatment cards! ALWAYS! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RadiationSafetyFirst?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RadiationSafetyFirst</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Lutathera?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Lutathera</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Lu177?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Lu177</a> Radiation <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RadiationSafety?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RadiationSafety</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NET?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NET</a> Contamination Following Cremation of a Deceased Patient Treated With a Radiopharmaceutical. | Oncology | JAMA | JAMA Network <a href="https://t.co/56Xf0WZBn2">https://t.co/56Xf0WZBn2</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Gabriela Spilberg, MD (@GabiSpil) <a href="https://twitter.com/GabiSpil/status/1100612927621685248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 27, 2019</a></p>
</blockquote><p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p><p>https://twitter.com/AdiHalthoreMD/status/1100462705255874561</p></p>


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Radiation Contamination at Crematorium Traced to Deceased Patient With Cancer Who Underwent Radiotherapy

Oncology

Radioactivity was detected at an Arizona crematory after a deceased man with pancreatic cancer was incinerated there. The man had undergone radiation therapy days before his ...

Radiation Contamination at Crematorium Traced to Deceased Patient With Cancer Who Underwent

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