Research into a 10-year cervical cancer study at Auckland's National Women's Hospital, which became know as the "unfortunate experiment", says the women involved suffered "profound harm".
Women whose treatment was withheld or delayed in Herbert Green's controversial clinical study suffered far more harm than those who were treated early, according to the first full analysis of the women's medical experiences and outcomes.
"Any suggestion that Herbert Green did no harm to these women is shown to be patently wrong," said Otago University's Margaret McCredie - the head of the team which conducted the new analysis.
The late Dr Green's study, which was conducted between 1965 and 1974, was deemed to be unethical by a judicial inquiry in 1988.
Dr McCredie said that for the first time, researchers were able to look at the treatment of different women for the same pre-cancerous condition in the ten-year periods before and after Dr Green's study.
They found that the "core group" of 127 women, who had treatment withheld or delayed after diagnosis of cervical carcinoma, had a ten times greater risk of developing invasive cervical or vaginal cancer than women who received prompt treatment.
The core group received only a small diagnostic biopsy, but no treatment in the six months after diagnosis. Eight women in the group died of cancer.
The researchers found that almost all the deaths from cancer occurred in the core group, though the numbers of deaths were too small to make a statistically valid comparison between the different groups.
The women in the core group also had four times the risk of having positive smears that remained untreated and nearly five times as many cervical biopsies.
Dr McCredie said inclusion in Dr Green's study subjected women to many procedures designed to observe rather than to treat them, and increased their risk of developing cancer of the cervix and vagina.
The researchers concluded the consequences of the clinical study were profound for the women who participated.
"When initial treatment with curative intent was withheld, their lives were seriously disrupted by the need to attend hospital for numerous medical interventions that would not have been necessary had treatment of curative intent been provided at the outset," the researchers said.
"Moreover, they had a substantially increased incidence of invasive cancer, with all the emotional stress and physical symptoms that the diagnosis of genital malignancy entails."
They said they published their findings to document and to acknowledge the harm suffered by the women.
The study was published on the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology website.
