Cancer patient tells N.B. pathologist inquiry he should have been diagnosed 4 years ago

A New Brunswick man with advanced prostate cancer told a public inquiry into problems with patient diagnoses that he could have avoided uncomfortable treatments had his tests been read accurately four years ago.

The 66-year-old man testified Monday in Miramichi that he learned in February he was among the patients whose tissue samples were reviewed in the re-examination of cases diagnosed by Dr. Rajgopal Menon, who was suspended from the Miramichi Regional Health Authority in February 2007 following complaints about incomplete diagnoses and delayed lab results.  

The man, who cannot be identified because the hearings are being held in camera, said that both he and his doctor suspected he had prostate cancer, but tests handled by Menon in 2004 and 2005 came back negative. A 2007 test with another pathologist confirmed the cancer.

When the biopsies were reviewed, cancer cells were found in the samples from 2004 and 2005, he said.

The man said by the time his cancer was confirmed, the cancer was too advanced for surgery and he had to receive radiation and hormonal therapy, which he said caused him to suffer low energy and hot flashes.

He said his doctor told him that he could have avoided that treatment altogether had he been diagnosed earlier.

The hearings in Miramichi this week mark the second phase of the inquiry into the work of the 74-year-old former pathologist, who had worked at the health authority since 1995.

Any of the patients affected by an independent audit of 227 cases of breast and prostate cancer biopsies from 2004-05 can testify. The audit found that 18 per cent of the cases had incomplete results and three per cent had been misdiagnosed, prompting Health Minister Mike Murphy to call a formal inquiry into the pathology work at the hospital.

Nearly 24,000 cases from 1995 to 2007 are being reviewed by a lab in Ottawa.

Menon has apologized to the patients, but said he was not aware of any errors in his work and takes "practically zero" responsibility for any incomplete or misdiagnosed results.

The patient testimonies will wrap up by the end of June and the inquiry will return to Moncton for a final four weeks of hearings in September.

The inquiry will not assign any criminal responsibility for the misdiagnoses. Justice Paul Creaghan is expected to make recommendations to the government by Jan. 1 on how to prevent excessive misdiagnoses from happening again.