Cancer testing problems solved, N.L. authority insists

Health officials in St. John's have vowed that mistakes at a pathology lab that gave hundreds of breast cancer patients inaccurate results will not be repeated.

Eastern Health chief executive officer George Tilleyapologized Friday for withholding information onthe high error rate for hormone receptor tests between 1997 and 2005. Hesaid he would welcome a public inquiry into what went wrong with the tests.

The health authority acknowledged in 2005 that there had been problems with the tests. However,the public didn't find out until last week that the error rate was several times higher than Eastern Health hadpreviously disclosed.

"It's great to be a Monday morning quarterback now. But I confess to you that I regret that we didn't [disclose the full information] and I apologize for that," Tilley said.

Premier Danny Williams committed Thursday to some sort of investigation into why the tests were so frequently flawed. Eastern Health which is the target of a pending class action suit has not explained what caused the inaccurate tests.

Officials from Eastern Health, which manages hospitals and clinics as well as runninglabs that offer provincewide services, said new testing measures have been adopted that the public can trust.

"We are good as any best laboratory in Canada, if not North America," said laboratory chief Dr. Nebojsa Denic.

In late 2006, ayear after Eastern Health disclosed the problems with the hormone receptor tests,the authoritysaid the error rate had been as low as 10 per cent.

However, court documents disclosed several days ago by CBC News including an affidavit signed by an Eastern Healthmanager showed that the error rate of hundreds of tests was about 42 per cent.

Apology not good enough, patient says

Juanita Hudson, a breast cancer patient who took her first test in 2002 but did not get correct results until 2005, said she is not prepared to accept Eastern Health's apology.

"They deceived us in the beginning when they didn't tell us, so I think they're trying to make up for lost time," Hudson told CBC News.

"We know that mistakes happen but, you know, when you think that we depend on the system and they let you down like that this should not have happened," said Hudson.

Last week, Hudson contacted St. John's lawyer Ches Crosbie, who is preparing an application to have a class-action lawsuit involving dozens of women certified by the Newfoundland Supreme Court.

An affidavit filed with the court showed that of 763 patients who had tested negative, 317 had been given inaccurate results. About a third were later given Tamoxifen, a hormonaldrug that is highly regarded for helping breast cancer patients fight their disease.

A separate document, a letter by consulting forensic pathologist Charles Hutton, showed that 36 women who had been given false tests had died.

'I wish that I could change it all': Tilley

Tilley said the issue has hung over Eastern Health as managers have tried to solve lab problems.

"Cancer is a terrible disease, and this situation has weighed very heavy on me personally and my colleagues," he said.

"Having said that we don't have an ability to be able to say whether the treatment of hormonal therapy would have made a difference to those people. I regret that and I wish that I could change it all."