Breast cancer test revelations 'eroding confidence,' survivor says
New revelations about faulty record-keeping over a contested series of breast cancer laboratory tests are unsettling, a survivor involved in a class-action lawsuit says.
"I think every time that these numbers keep changing, it just keeps eroding confidence in the system," said Minnie Hoyles, reacting to Health Minister Ross Wiseman's disclosure that Eastern Health still does not have a complete set of records on hormone receptor testing.
A judicial inquiry is pending on flawed hormone receptor tests done at an Eastern Health lab in St. John's.The Newfoundland Supreme Court has certified a class-action lawsuit.
Wiseman said on Friday that he was upset to learn that Eastern Health had found that 15 lab tests that should have been retested were not. As well, more retests are expected.
Documents registered this spring in relation to the class-action lawsuit showed that 939 hormone receptor tests— which are used to help determine if a patient is suitable for an antihormonal treatment, like Tamoxifen— have been sent to Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto for retesting.
The contested tests had been done over an eight-year period, ending in 2005. Officials say that problems at the lab in St. John's have been resolved.
Hoyles fears that the ongoing retesting will show that some breast cancer patients still are not getting the right treatment.
Hoyles was diagnosed in 1998. After a hormone receptor test was ordered, it came back negative and she was not given Tamoxifen, which has been proven to increase survival rates for breast cancer patients.
However, the retest found her tumour was hormone receptor positive and she has been given an antihormonal drug.
Hoyles said the latest news underlines the need for the judicial inquiry, which was announced this summer and is set to begin hearing evidence in January.
"I felt as if Eastern Health was holding things back," Hoyles said.
"I think with the inquiry they will be forced at this point now to bring out all the facts."