{"id":625928,"date":"2026-09-16T01:50:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T01:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/625928\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T01:50:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T01:50:13","slug":"doctor-cleared-of-allegations-of-offering-cancer-patient-treatment-without-flagging-risk-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/625928\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctor cleared of allegations of offering cancer patient treatment without flagging risk \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Allegations that a doctor did not advertise clearly on her website that cancer<\/a> immune support therapy should be undertaken in addition to, and not as a replacement for, conventional therapy, have been found unproven.<\/p>\n

A Medical Council<\/a> fitness to practise committee reconvened on Tuesday to announce its findings regarding the allegations, which also included professional misconduct and poor professional performance, in relation to Prof Dana Flavin, whose registered address is Eschenberg, Starberg, Germany.<\/p>\n

The doctor faced allegations that between September 2021 and April 2023, while providing treatment to a patient, A, who was suffering from localised breast cancer, that she failed to clearly advertise on her website, collmed.org, the risks associated with immune-support treatment.<\/p>\n

It was further alleged that Flavin, who qualified in Austria, failed to clearly state on her website that the treatment offered was not based on phase-three clinical trials.<\/p>\n

Flavin, who did not attend the hearing and was not represented, was also accused of failing to adhere to the Medical Council guide to professional conduct and ethics. It was alleged that the information on her website relating to immune support treatment was not verifiable and had the potential to raise unrealistic expectations on the part of patients.<\/p>\n

An allegation regarding the alleged provision of immune support treatment to A was withdrawn on Monday.<\/p>\n

Chairperson of the committee Jill Long said that the factual allegations had not been proved beyond reasonable doubt.<\/p>\n

Long said that \u201con the limited evidence\u201d provided, the committee could not be satisfied that treatment was provided by Flavin to A between September 2021 and April 2023. <\/p>\n

She said there was \u201cno direct evidence\u201d of A receiving treatment from Flavin or that there was any evidence that A accessed the website during this period. <\/p>\n

Long continued that the only evidence regarding the website was that of Gemma Fallon, a Medical Council employee, which related to screenshots of the website taken between June 24th to June 27th, 2022, which Fallon admitted she did not take. <\/p>\n

In her evidence on Monday, Fallon also admitted that the screenshots did not represent the whole of the website, that there was other material and blogs on the site, which were not brought in evidence before the committee. <\/p>\n

Long noted that the chief executive of the Medical Council, Dr Maria O\u2019Kane had to \u201cprove a negative\u201d, namely to establish that Flavin\u2019s website did not contain certain things that it should have. <\/p>\n

Long said the committee were \u201cconcerned\u201d they were being asked to make findings based on \u201climited screenshots\u201d, which were taken during \u201ca narrow window of time\u201d. <\/p>\n

She said that the screenshots did not contain all of the information on the website, which was \u201ca very significant evidential deficit\u201d considering the manner in which the allegations were framed and what the chief executive had to prove. <\/p>\n

The committee also noted the disclaimer on Flavin\u2019s website which said that the information provided was \u201cfor information purposes only\u201d, that it was not a substitute for professional medical advice. <\/p>\n

The committee also had note of a bullet point on the site that said that consultations were provided particularly to \u201cenhance the efficacy of conventional medicine\u201d. <\/p>\n

Long said that the onus was on the chief executive to prove her case beyond a reasonable doubt, which was a high standard and that it was a matter of legal principle that the benefit of the doubt must be afforded to Flavin. <\/p>\n

As the factual allegations were found not proven, the committee also found it unnecessary to consider the allegations of professional misconduct and poor professional performance.<\/p>\n

The committee heard on Monday from Dr Seamus O\u2019Reilly, oncology consultant at Cork University Hospital, who said that he saw A in August 2021 where she was recommended a cancer treatment plan which included the provision of chemotherapy.<\/p>\n

However, O\u2019Reilly said it was his understanding that as part of a 12-week programme under the care of Flavin, A was taking supplements. O\u2019Reilly said this was not encouraged during chemotherapy treatment as there was some evidence they reduced its benefit.<\/p>\n

Ronan Kennedy SC, legal assessor to the hearing, gave numerous cautions to the committee regarding hearsay evidence which could not be tested.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Reilly said that despite being shown on CAT scans that the cancer was getting worse, A still declined to accept conventional treatment and that she subsequently died.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Allegations that a doctor did not advertise clearly on her website that cancer immune support therapy should be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[258,27121,292,61,60,37636,43],"class_list":["post-625928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-cancer","tag-cork-university-hospital","tag-germany","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-medical-council","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}