20 Tuesday December 21 2021 | the times
News
An eminent cancer expert who
breached “the very core of the Hippo-
cratic oath” by sanctioning “futile”
treatments has escaped being struck off
the medical register after pleas from
patients and their relatives.
Justin Stebbing, nicknamed “God” in
honour of his pioneering work, has
been a consultant to wealthy patients
from around the world because of his
reputation for continuing “aggressive”
treatment right up to death.
The Oxford-educated professor, who
has published more than 600 peer-
reviewed papers, attributed his dishon-
esty in altering medical forms to a
breakdown while his “personal life was
in turmoil”. Stebbing, 50, pleaded not to
be erased from the medical register,
saying it would destroy his ground-
breaking research on breast cancer, end
his international work on Covid-19 and
mean that more than 150 patients
would lose their consultant.
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal
Service was told harrowing details of
the final days of patients, many of
whom turned to Stebbing after other
oncologists said nothing could be done.
A disciplinary panel found that
between 2014 and 2017 he sanctioned
“futile” treatment that was “fundamen-
tally inconsistent with the best interests
of patients”. It concluded that his be-
‘God’ avoids being struck
off after patients’ pleas
David Brown haviour had breached “the very core of
the Hippocratic oath”. Failures includ-
ed using a toxic substance with no ben-
efit and not providing a “ceiling of care”,
which potentially deprived one woman
of a “dignified death”.
Stebbing admitted to 30 charges re-
lating to overtreatment, not obtaining
full patient consent, dishonesty and in-
appropriate behaviour in relation to 12
patients. Mary O’Rourke QC, who rep-
resented Stebbing, said that the dishon-
esty took place during a ten-day period
when he was mentally unwell with
“clear undisputed evidence from his ex-
wife that his personal life was in turmoil
and his behaviour during that period
was completely out of character”.
The General Medical Council said
that erasure from the medical record
would be an “appropriate and propor-
tionate sanction”. Sharon Beattie QC,
for the GMC, said Stebbing’s wrong-
doing had been a “persistent course of
misconduct”, including dishonesty.
Stebbing told the tribunal he was
working on the most significant re-search of his career investigating the
genomics of different parts of the nor-
mal breast, and the role of pregnancy.
He said that after four years of work, he
was about six months from completion.
The tribunal said it had received an
unprecedented number of testimonials
from patients, former patients, mem-
bers of their families and colleagues.
Mark Dransfield, 61, who helped to
fund Stebbing’s case, gave evidence
about the treatment of his late wife,
Deborah Holmes. He told the tribunal:
“This man is not driven by money but
by a will to try and ensure that people
can fulfil their life expectancy.” He con-
trasted this with the care his wife had
received after Stebbing was unable to
continue supervising her treatment in- She died in 2019, aged 56.
The tribunal concluded: “A suspen-
sion for nine months would adequately
and proportionately address the mis-
conduct and allow Professor Stebbing
sufficient time to address the remaining
deficiencies in insight with a view to
returning to practice.”
The family of the actress Lynda Bel-
lingham, who died of bowel cancer,
asked mourners at her funeral to help
to fund Stebbing’s work after she lived
for 15 months after her first appoint-
ment with him. Sir Michael Parkinson,
who was treated for prostate cancer in
2013, is a patron of the charity that helps
to fund Stebbing’s work.
Professor Justin
Stebbing said his
“significant”
research on breast
cancer was close
to completion