Quebec considers monitoring breast cancer treatment tests

Quebec Health Minister Yves Bolduc has called an emergency meeting with officials this weekend to discuss a troubling study about breast cancer treatment in the province.

The study, conducted by the province's pathologists association and released this week, suggests as many as one out of five women with breast cancer may not be receiving the right treatment because of problems with hormone receptor tests, used to identify certain types of malignant tumours.

Bolduc plans to meet with epidemiologists to review the study's results and discuss whether hormone receptor testing should be more closely monitored in pathology laboratories.

"It's something [about which] I want to have answers," he told reporters in Quebec City. "But for the moment, I have to talk with the experts, and we have to discuss together. We have to be sure that every patient should get the [right] treatment, or stop [inappropriate] treatment as soon as possible."

Whenthe study was released health officials said women concerned about their breast cancer diagnosis should call Quebec's health care hotline.

On Friday Bolduc admitted a call to the hotline wouldn't provide many answers.

"We're going to tell them that we know about the problem, but they're going to have to wait, because every case is particular," he told reporters in Quebec City.

The study sparked a firestorm at Quebec's provincial legislature, where opposition leaders accused the government of knowing about problems with the hormone receptor tests long before they became public.

"It's certain that we need a larger study to know what happened," said Parti Qubcois Leader Pauline Marois.

Bolduc has agreed the issue needs further study. He's already promised to thoroughly review the pathologists' study and examine its methodology.

The Quebec federation of medical specialists is calling for more resources to be allocated to pathologists.

Any faulty test results can be explained by poor training, a lack of proper staffing and outdated equipment, said federation president Gatan Barrette.

Studying more test results won't resolve the situation, he told CBC.

"Quebec pathologists validated their methodology with Saskatchewan and B.C. pathologists who did the same study," Barrette said.

A similar situation sparked public uproar last year in Newfoundland and Labrador whereEastern Health's pathology lab had given inaccurate hormone receptor test resultsto almost 400 patients over an eight-year period. Of those, more than 100 had died.

Quebec's pathology association had 15 breast cancer tissue samples retested for hormone receptors by a second laboratory, after witnessing the Newfoundland fiasco.