Following spinal injections of anticancer drugs last year at Saitama Prefectural Children¡¯s Medical Center, one leukemia patient in his teens died and the condition of two other patients became critical, the hospital revealed Wednesday.
Between January and October 2025, three male leukemia patients at the hospital ¡ª two in their teens and one under the age of 10 ¡ª developed severe neurological symptoms including difficulty walking after anticancer drugs were administered via injection into the spinal cord.
One of the teens who received the treatment in October began experiencing pain in his thighs the day after he underwent the injection. His condition became critical and he needed to use a ventilator before dying on Feb 6.
The first patient to experience side effects was given the drugs by injection in January 2025 and four days later could no longer walk. The other teenage patient underwent the procedure in March 2025 and soon after developed similar neurological symptoms. Both have lost consciousness and are currently in a critical condition, suffering from paralysis and requiring a ventilator.
Flagging the irregularities after the three incidents, the hospital suspended cancer treatments via intrathecal injection for all patients in November and reported the incidents to the public health center in Saitama Prefecture.
The hospital then set up a committee of experts to investigate the cause of the three incidents, holding six discussions between November and March.
On Tuesday the hospital reported the incidents to the police, following the revelation that a drug not meant for use in such treatment had been found in a fluid sample from a patient and was believed to have been used in the injections the patients were given.
¡°When we sent the cerebrospinal fluid collected from the patient to a laboratory for analysis, a drug solution that should not be used for intrathecal injections of anticancer drugs was detected,¡± explained Akira Oka, the head of the medical center.
The drug found in the solution that is thought most likely to have been responsible for the patient¡¯s severe symptoms is vincristine, which is used for leukemia treatment but is only intended for use by intravenous injection and is thought to be very dangerous if injected into the spinal cord.
In a statement released Wednesday on the hospital¡¯s website, Oka said that, going forward, they would ¡°work to determine the cause of the incident while ensuring that each member of our staff maintains an even stronger commitment to medical safety.¡±
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