Home Page >> News Articles >> Ovarian Cancer Survivor Blames Power Mor..
Victorville, CAIf Margaret knew that the FDA in 2014 had warned health providers of cancer risk in laparoscopic power morcellation surgery, she would have opted for a “traditional” hysterectomy. Two years later she finished her last round of chemotherapy to treat ovarian cancer.
Margaret’s gynecologist advised her to have a laparoscopy rather than the “old school” hysterectomy to remove fibroid tumors on her ovary. The procedure is less invasive and therefore a faster recovery. “I’m an active person, and my waitressing job kept me in good shape. I was only 45 years old so I was figuring I would be back to work in three months,” says Margaret. But more than two years later she is still on disability.
She had never heard of, and was never told about, the power morcellator cutting device used during the procedure.
A few months later Margaret was back in ER. This time she had a CAT Scan with contrast dye. “It lit up like a Christmas tree, showing five (possible) cancer masses in my abdominal area. But I had to fight with my insurance for 12 weeks to see an oncologist,” adds Margaret.
manufacturers add a boxed warning to Power Morcellator labels. The agency also warned that the "vast majority" of women undergoing removal of the uterus (hysterectomy) or fibroids (myomectomy) should not have surgery that involves the use of a power morcellator!
Many surgeons prefer using a power morcellator to cut up uterine fibroids for removal because of the ability to make very small incisions, meaning that it is a less invasive procedure. But if those fibroids contain some form of cancer the device can actually spread cancer cells throughout the body when the tissue is cut into miniscule pieces.
Some surgeons—such as Margaret’s gynecologist— may have ignored the FDA warning.
In February 2017, the same time that Margaret had her last round of chemo, a report issued by the US Government Accountability Office revealed that the FDA already knew of the potential risk for laparoscopic power morcellators to spread cancer 22 years before issuing its 2014 warning, saying that the FDA "was aware of the potential for power morcellators to spread tissue (cancerous and noncancerous) when the agency cleared the first device in 1991" but believed there was a low risk of unsuspected cancers that could spread.