Maureen Vescio, 72, had been involved in a UK-wide study in 2013 after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

An inquest at Norfolk Coroner’s Court on Monday was told the trial compared one week of radiotherapy with the standard three-week course for early breast cancer patients.

Norfolk and Norwich Hospital (Image: Newsquest)

In evidence read to the court, consultant clinical oncologist Dr David Maskell said Mrs Vescio had consented to the treatment and received written information as part of a “large cancer information pack” provided by the hospital and the trial organisers.

This stated that radiotherapy can “slightly increase the risk of developing a second cancer later in life”, though such complications were considered “very rare” — affecting fewer than one in 1,000 patients.

Mrs Vescio completed her radiotherapy in late 2013.

A decade later, in July 2023, she was diagnosed with radiation-associated angiosarcoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer affecting about 0.2pc of patients treated with breast radiotherapy.

Despite chemotherapy, her condition worsened and she was placed on palliative care before her death on April 25.

The medical cause of death was recorded as metastatic angiosarcoma of the chest wall due to carcinoma of the breast treated with radiotherapy.

READ MORE:

© Norwich Evening News