Re-testing ordered for Edmonton prostate cancer exams
Posted Dec 3, 2011 10:37 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Alberta Health Services has ordered the re-testing of 1700 diagnoses made by a former Edmonton pathologist in the field of prostate cancer testing.
According to the Calgary Herald, the list of men affected includes 29 who may have missed months of treatment as a result of the flawed test results.
The pathologist, who has not been named, was filling in for another doctor over the summer. He has since retired, and the mistakes were discovered after a urologist performing cancer surgery on a patient found discrepancies between what was in the pathologist’s report and what he was actually seeing.
Of the 29 cases in question, 14 involved an under-estimation of the severity of the cancer’s progress.
It’s the second such review being conduct Alberta’s Health Quality Council. Another one is already underway into the processing of specimens by Calgary Laboratory Services staff at Rockyview General Hospital.
