Below is the verbatim email Dr. Suresh Katakkar sent to patients explaining his resignation:
I have resigned from BCCA since 1st June 2012.1 was unable to communicate due to the fact I was BCCA employee and legal reasons. Please note as a physician my first obligation is to my patients and then to my employer. I had a young 33 years patient with very advanced disease whom I saw July 2011. With advanced cancer her prognosis was poor. She was started on chemotherapy and responded reasonably until Dec.2011 when we decided to maintain on an antibody called Herceptin and if disease progresses start her on chemotherapy after the Holidays. By mid Jan. 2012 her disease was progressing so I wanted to start on the chemotherapy but per BCCA I could not start on the same chemotherapy even if she had responded before. So I requested new chemotherapy which is accepted by Health Canada and FDA in United State but it was declined by BCCA. So I used the chemotherapy that BCCA wanted but it did not work. I requested again the combination of the drugs that I had requested before but not in BCCA protocols but approved by Health Canada and FDA but it was declined. Finally the patient's father Hon. Jay Hill agreed to pay for the drugs and we proceeded with the chemotherapy. Following the first chemotherapy she had no obvious response and I discussed poor prognosis with the family. Naturally their response is their anything can be done on this earth to prolong the survival and possible cure and the answer to that was emphatically but with full empathy was no! Patient being only 33 years of age was scared and wanted to know anything can be done for her. At that time I recalled of my study that I presented in New York Academy of Sciences sponsored conference on Vaccines and Cancers Jan. 1992. I had prepared a vaccine from patients body fluid loaded with the cancer cells and injected under the skin three times week. The vaccine was made for each individual patient from his/ her own body fluids. So it was patient specific. So knowing the poor response to the chemotherapy and death knocking on the patient's door I told of my research to the patient. She wanted me to do it for her. So with her full consent and her husband's full consent I proceeded and made the vaccine. Again I did not get any staff involvement and patient's husband knew how to inject it so he was prepared to inject it. I have seen a complete response in my previous patient who had similar cancer as to my patient in Prince George. I did not stop the chemotherapy and her husband proceeded with injection of the vaccine which was prepared under full precautions. The patient's blood test for the cancer showed improvement and patient started responding with the decrease in the tumor mass and less accumulation of the fluid in her abdomen. My manager wanted me to be transparent and inform BCCA of this. But I felt I had to gather all my proofs and scientific support before inform BCCA. As all of you know how busy I had been it was taking time to prepare the statement. In the mean time patient had clinically good response but her white blood cell count went down and she passed away with infection in the blood stream. The low white cell count was due to chemotherapy not due to the vaccine. Prior to her death there was accumulation of the fluid and the fluid did show the cancer cells. My manager then reported me to BCCA.
So I contacted the New York Academy of Sciences to get the paper I presented in 1992 as it was archived it would have taken long time and it is still not received. None the less by definition I should have taken BCCA permission to do this and such research study is not consider a standard therapy did it only because I had seen the response in my life in a similar situation and I morally could not have said to the patient "nothing could be done". To get the permission to do something like this would have taken a long long time and patient would not have made that long. So what I did was with the full consent of the patient and the husband and the family and I felt as a physician I am morally obligated to do it as I have been fortunate to see a response in a similar situation. Besides I am not just a chemotherapist I am a Doctor first and giving hope to my patients in a dire situation is my moral obligation that's what I did. This was legally wrong as I did not followed thru the steps I should have taken for research protocol. So while BCCA is investigating I have resigned as I need to be transparent to all of you as I am responsible to you. If I am employed by BCCA then I cannot communicate to you.
God bless all of you.
