Cancer patient plans lawsuit after FedEx loses tissue sample


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CLINTON — A woman may have to go through unnecessary chemotherapy to treat her breast cancer after her tissue sample was lost in the mail.

A pain on the left side of Marlene Van Duyne's chest alerted her that something was wrong.

“Something just didn’t feel right,” she said.

An ultrasound at McKay-Dee Hospital found a tumor in Van Duyne's right breast. Further testing confirmed it was cancerous.

Van Duyne chose to have both breasts removed. Her doctor sent tissue from the tumor to a lab on the East Coast weeks ago, but the FedEx package never made it.

Test results would have told doctors the stage of Van Duyne's cancer and what kind of treatment is best.

“If you look at what chemotherapy accomplishes, it reduces the risk by about 25 percent, so if her risk is 20 percent, then we lower it to 15 percent with six months of chemotherapy,” said Dr. Harold Johnson, Van Duyne's oncologist.


I've been through enough; it's enough for a woman to be diagnosed with breast cancer, have a double mastectomy, and then having FedEx tell me, the patient, the tumor is lost in the system? What am I supposed to do?

–Marlene Van Duyne, cancer patient


“Some patients would feel it’s worth it, and some would feel that it isn’t," Johnson said.

The worst part, Van Duyne said, is that doctors have no other tissue to sample from, and even if the sample is found, it may not be usable.

“Nobody knows if they can still test it or if it’s melted,” Van Duyne said.

She has to decide by Friday whether to receive or forgo chemotherapy — a treatment she may or may not need.

“They’ve got my life on the line here," Van Duyne said, "I’ve been through enough. It’s enough for a woman to be diagnosed with breast cancer, have a double mastectomy, and then having FedEx tell me — the patient — the tumor is lost in the system? What am I supposed to do?”

KSL contacted FedEx and received the following statement: "All of our customers' shipments are important to us. We work directly with our customers to resolve any issues."

Van Duyne has hired an attorney and plans to file a lawsuit against FedEx.

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