Que. breast cancer patients sue over misdiagnosis

Two Quebec womenreceiving treatmentfor advanced breast cancer are suing their radiologists for misreading their mammograms.

The lawsuits total $544,000 and include damages for psychological and physical pain.

Micheline Lalonde, 66, has had a double mastectomy, chemotherapy andradiation therapy and is currently on a five-year hormonal therapy program.

In 2006 and 2008, Lalonde went to the Centre radiologique Fleury in Montreal for her regular biennial mammogram exam.

The radiologist doing the breast screening, Dr. Nabil Antoun, noticed an abnormality on her right breast in 2008 and ordered an ultrasound, after which he concluded there was no cancer.

"In May 2009, while I was taking my shower I [felt] a very big mass," said Lalonde.

Flanked by her lawyer at a media conference on Wednesday, Lalonde told reporters that she had immediatelygone to see her family doctor, who ordered a mammogram at another clinic.

Less than three months later, Lalonde was in surgery. "I asked another radiologist to look at my [scans] and he told me it was there in 2006," said Lalonde, whose cancer has spread to her lymph nodes.

She is suing her original radiologist for $235,000. "I feel very angry. I hate that man. All the time I had this inside and I know that maybe I'm going to die of that."

Another woman, Louise Barrette, is suing her radiologist, Dr. Raymond Bergeron, for$309,000in damages.

In March 2009, she went to see Bergeron, who works atRadiologie Fabreville in Laval, north of Montreal, after she detected a lump in her left breast, but Barrette saidhe concluded the mammogram was normal.

It was only after her family doctor felt the lump and ordered a second evaluation that it was discovered she had a Stage 2 cancerous growth in her left breastand had to have a mastectomy.

"I lost my hair, everything. I am not finished," said Barrette, who underwent chemotherapy, 21 rounds of radiation therapy and is now taking the cancer drug Herceptin.

The lawsuits come two weeks after Quebec's College of Physicians ordered an investigation into 15,000 mammograms done by Bergeron, who worked out of three clinics in Montreal and Laval.

No quality control, lawyer says

"It is sad that people who have been diagnosed too late are obliged to make complaints, and it is only that process that brings [Quebec's College of Physicians] to control the doctors," said Jean-Pierre Mnard, who is representing the women.

Mnard said thatafter his clients sent complaints to the college, the radiologists were suspended from interpreting mammograms, but did not face any other type of disciplinary action.

"There is really an absence of quality control there is no review process to make sure every radiologist is doing mammograms properly," said Mnard.

Mnard suggests Quebec should institute random, blind quality-control tests, regular performance reviews for radiologists, and a second analysis of earlier mammograms if a woman is diagnosed with advanced breast cancer.

The secretary at the College of Physicians, Yves Robert, says it is the patients' right to file a lawsuit but he cautions "there is no screening program that can guarantee100 per cent that there will be never a mistake."

About 650,000 mammograms are done in Quebec every year and Robert says the rate of error for diagnoses is in line with other provinces, somewhere around five per cent.

Thecollege does not carry out random spot checks on radiologists.