Two Patients Faced Chemo. The One Who Survived Demanded a Test To See if It Was Safe.

Two Patients Faced Chemo. The One Who Survived Demanded a Test To See if It Was Safe.

JoEllen Zembruski-Ruple, while in the care of New York City’s renowned Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, swallowed the first three chemotherapy pills to treat her squamous cell carcinoma on Jan. 29, her family members said. They didn’t realize the drug could kill her. Six days later, Zembruski-Ruple went to Sloan Kettering’s urgent care department to treat sores in her mouth and swelling around her eyes. The hospital diagnosed oral yeast i…

Two patients faced chemo. The one who survived got a test to see if it was safe.

As cancer drug deaths pile up, doctors are increasingly testing for gene variants that can cause thousands of patients to suffer harsh chemo toxicity.