Eastern Health sending breast cancer samples to U.S. lab
Eastern Health, the St. John's-based health authority rocked by a breast cancer testing scandal over the last decade, is again sending tissue samples out-of-province, CBC News has learned.
The issue, though, is not with the type of testing that caused a scandal in 2005 and triggered the subsequent Cameron judicial inquiry, which exposed serious faults in the quality of lab work done on samples taken from breast cancer patients.
The Cameron inquiry focused largely on ER/PR testing, which involves estrogen and progesterone receptors. The tests are critical for determining whether a patient diagnosed with breast cancer would benefit from a powerful yet toxic therapy like Tamoxifen.
"We have never really had a problem with ER/PR. We've never had a problem since we brought it back, and it really is another test that we had issues with," said Dr. Stephen Raab, Eastern Health's clinical chief of laboratory medicine.
"That's why we send everything away right now."
The test causing the current issues is known as HER2, and is often used to help treat more aggressive forms of breast cancer.
Tests sent to Miami
Raab said Eastern Health has decided that while it is overhauling its lab testing, all of its breast cancer tests will be sent out until the authority is ready to proceed on its own.
"We're sending it there (to Miami) because we are redeveloping our breast cancer biomarker service," Raab said in an interview.
He said Eastern Health chose that lab over a Canadian alternative because of its accuracy, as well as its ability to provide results within several days compared to several weeks with Canadian labs.
Eastern Health had sent its ER/PR tests out of the province for several years until quality issues were resolved in 2011.
Justice Margaret Cameron's 2009 report flagged a series of laboratory mistakes and managerial oversight problems.
Eastern Health overhauled its laboratory practices, and the Newfoundland and Labrador government apologized to patients who were affected by mistakes in lab work.
