OSAKA -- The family of a man who died at age 46 after being given a nonstandard cancer treatment via an intravenous drip, which an Osaka clinic recommended to kill cancer cells, is suing the head of the clinic for 9.35 million yen (about $61,500) in damages.

The bereaved family was set to file the lawsuit with the Osaka District Court on Oct. 23. They say the content of the drip has not been revealed, and that there wasn't a sufficient explanation about the dangers of the treatment.

According to the lawsuit, the man was diagnosed in April 2021 with cancer of the prostate or seminal vesicles. He received chemotherapy at a regular hospital, and was also examined at the clinic.

The clinic, which offered nonstandard methods, advertised that its treatment would "kill cancer cells." Unlike standard treatment whose medical efficacy has been confirmed, such nonstandard treatment is not covered by public medical insurance and patients must cover the full cost themselves.

In October 2021, the man received an IV drip described as a "U.S.-made therapeutic drug." The following month, however, he was found to have developed a blood clot in an artery, and his tumor marker levels worsened. He died in April the following year from cancerous peritonitis, which affects the abdominal lining.

No clear answer

According to messages between the man and the head of the clinic, the patient was advised to take Gasdermin-E, a substance from the gasdermin protein family, with the explanation that it was a protein gene which would trigger cancer cell death.

When the family checked what the man had actually been given, the head of the clinic said, "It was Gasdermin RNA" and that he would check again with the U.S. maker. After that, the family reportedly received no clear answers about the content of the drip.

The man's kin have been unable to find any written consent to the treatment, and claim that the drip led to his death. They argue that the head of the clinic lacked sufficient knowledge and had not been properly accountable to them.

"We expected the substance to suppress the cancer's growth, but it was not something that could be administered to the human body as a treatment," the family claimed.

The director of the clinic told the Mainichi Shimbun in a telephone interview, "What was administered was something very normally used on other patients. I had no intention of giving a strange treatment, and I don't know why I would be sued. The treatment was administered with the patient's consent, and we didn't treat him without permission."

(Japanese original by Ryoko Kijima, Osaka City News Department)