Porsche McGregor-Sims: Doctor missed cervical cancer signs, inquest told

A woman who died of cervical cancer was told by a doctor it was unlikely she had the disease despite suffering numerous symptoms, an inquest has heard.

Porsche McGregor-Sims, 27, was referred to the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth in December 2019 after suffering abdominal pain and bleeding.

An inquest in Portsmouth heard she was seen the following month by Dr Peter Schlesinger, who believed her symptoms suggested problems other than cancer.

Ms McGregor-Sims died on 14 April 2020.

She had reported that her symptoms were continuing in March of that year and, following further tests, was diagnosed with stage four cancer.

Locum gynaecologist Dr Schlesinger told the inquest that a clear smear test two years earlier, an ultrasound scan that highlighted no problems, and the patient's age had led him to consider other factors.

He said cervical cancer normally takes "decades" to develop, and added it was "very rare" for it to occur in the time since Ms McGregor-Sims' smear test.

"Everything pointed to dysfunctional bleeding rather than cancer," he said.

Dr Schlesinger said he did not feel a physical examination was appropriate because he did not suspect cancer and wanted to allow other treatment options to be tried first.

'Symptoms are common'

Dirk Brinkmann, gynaecology oncological lead at the hospital, said Ms McGregor-Sims had a "full house of symptoms" of cervical cancer.

He said: "I'm not sure what else you would need to be suspicious of cervical cancer.

"Those symptoms are common - and could be caused by many other things and could be caused by infection - but what we usually try to do is find a unifying diagnosis, and there is a unifying diagnosis and that is cervical cancer."

Coroner Rosamund Rhodes-Kemp adjourned the hearing to continue on a date to be set.

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