Skip Navigation


Journal of the National Cancer Institute Advance Access originally published online on June 10, 2008
JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2008 100(12):836-844; doi:10.1093/jnci/djn200
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
100/12/836    most recent
djn200v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Request Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Hede, K.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Hede, K.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© Oxford University Press 2008.

NEWS

Breast Cancer Testing Scandal Shines Spotlight on Black Box of Clinical Laboratory Testing

Karyn Hede

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A Canadian public inquiry into botched estrogen receptor tests has shaken public confidence in cancer care and raised questions about the oversight of laboratories that perform crucial tests that often determine which treatment breast cancer patients receive. The public inquiry, now under way in Newfoundland, is charged with investigating events that led to a breakdown of estrogen receptor (ER) testing at a laboratory run by Eastern Health, the provincial health care delivery system in Newfoundland and Labrador. Through the inquiry, the public learned that between 1997 and 2005 nearly 400 of about 1,000 breast cancer patients received incorrect test results of the ER status of their breast tumors. Of these patients, more than 100 have since died, leaving grieving families wondering if inaccurate test results cost their loved ones’ lives.

Nearly every newly diagnosed breast cancer tumor is tested to determine its ER status. Patients whose tumors test ER positive . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Slow Changes

Creating Greater Accountability

Fallout


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Clin. Cancer Res.Home page
P. Roepman, H. M. Horlings, O. Krijgsman, M. Kok, J. M. Bueno-de-Mesquita, R. Bender, S. C. Linn, A. M. Glas, and M. J. van de Vijver
Microarray-Based Determination of Estrogen Receptor, Progesterone Receptor, and HER2 Receptor Status in Breast Cancer
Clin. Cancer Res., November 15, 2009; 15(22): 7003 - 7011.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 JCOHome page
M. M. Mansukhani and N. Rosenfeld
Reply to G. Rossi et al
J. Clin. Oncol., October 1, 2009; 27(28): e143 - e144.
[Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 The OncologistHome page
D. C. Allred
Commentary: Hormone Receptor Testing in Breast Cancer: A Distress Signal from Canada
Oncologist, November 1, 2008; 13(11): 1134 - 1136.
[Full Text] [PDF]