UP-DATE; BC BREAST CANCER RETESTS; FULL DISCLOSURE NOT YET MADE TO PATIENTS AND FAMILIES; KELOWNA.COM REPORTS;

"DR. HALPENNY ALSO SAID THE HEALTH AUTHORITY HAS INFORMED THE 36 PATIENTS WHO ARE STILL ALIVE THAT THEIR SAMPLES ARE BEING RETESTED. THE FAMILIES OF THE 22 DECEASED PATIENTS HAVE NOT YET BEEN TOLD ABOUT THE RETESTS BUT DR. HALPENNY SAID THEY WILL BE INFORMED ONCE THE RESULTS ARE BACK, REGARDLESS OF IF THERE IS A CHANGE IN THE RESULT.
“ONCE THE FULL TESTS ARE DONE WE’LL DO A FULL DISCLOSURE TO ALL PATIENTS AND FAMILIES.”".........

"ALMOST 400 PATIENTS IN NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR WERE GIVEN INACCURATE BREAST CANCER TEST RESULTS BETWEEN 1997 AND 2005. BY THE START OF A PUBLIC INQUIRY INTO THE SITUATION IN 2008, 108 OF THOSE PATIENTS HAD DIED.

IN QUEBEC MEANWHILE, MORE THAN 2,000 SAMPLES ARE BEING RETESTED AFTER A STUDY FOUND THAT 15 TO 30 PER CENT OF BREAST CANCER TESTS HAD BEEN BOTCHED."

KELOWNA.COM;

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Background: This blog has been following developments in Newfoundland, Quebec, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba and other areas in Canada which have been plagued by flawed cancer tests in order to remind readers that the problems in Canadian pathology are not limited to its application in the criminal justice system - and the numerous miscarriages of justice involving Dr. Charles Randal Smith.

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"The Interior Health Authority’s senior medical director fully expects some of the 58 breast cancer tests sent off for review, to come back with different diagnoses," Kelowna.com reported yesterday, under the heading, "Senior medical director expects breast cancer retests to come back with different results."

"“When we do a look back, we are looking back at the tests and doing them with the newest methodology, so you would suspect that using newer technology, that you would find more cases,” said Dr. Robert Halpenny," the story, by reporter Adrian Nieoczym, continues;

"The estrogen receptor tests, conducted on biopsy samples of women already diagnosed with breast cancer to help determine the course of treatment, were originally conducted at Kelowna General Hospital between May 2005 and November 2006.

In May, the health authority decided to send the samples to the B.C. Cancer Agency in Vancouver for retesting, five months after the former head of the Okanagan Health Services Area laboratories wrote IHA recommending the review.

One batch of samples was sent off in June, with a second sent a month later.

A positive estrogen receptor test indicates that a tumour is hormone driven and that the patient is a possible candidate for treatment with the anti-hormonal drug Tamoxifen or other similar medications.

The 58 tests being reviewed were all initially found to be negative. 22 of the women are now deceased, though at this point there is no evidence that problems with the tests led to them not being offered potentially life-saving treatment.

Dr. Halpenny said the estrogen receptor (ER) test does not simply return a positive or a negative result.

“It’s not a matter of a light going off, you’re ER negative and that you’re ER positive. There’s a gradation,” he said. “And the more positive that a patient is, the more susceptible they are to the medication, the better it works. So, someone could be ER positive but weakly positive and the mediation may not do anything for them. That’s important.”

He added that when the tests were originally conducted at KGH, they were done with the best technology available in the province at the time.

Dr. Halpenny also said the health authority has informed the 36 patients who are still alive that their samples are being retested. The families of the 22 deceased patients have not yet been told about the retests but Dr. Halpenny said they will be informed once the results are back, regardless of if there is a change in the result.

“Once the full tests are done we’ll do a full disclosure to all patients and families.”

Dr. Halpenny said the cancer agency has made the 58 retests “a high priority.”

Inaccurate breast cancer tests have become something of a national epidemic.

Almost 400 patients in Newfoundland and Labrador were given inaccurate breast cancer test results between 1997 and 2005. By the start of a public inquiry into the situation in 2008, 108 of those patients had died.

In Quebec meanwhile, more than 2,000 samples are being retested after a study found that 15 to 30 per cent of breast cancer tests had been botched."

The full story can be found at:

http://www.kelowna.com/2009/08/19/senior-medical-director-expects-breast-cancer-retests-to-come-back-with-different-results/
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;