More than 300 patients in Newfoundland and Labrador who had to have questionable breast cancer tests redone have since died -- almost twice the number originally thought.
Provincial health officials said Friday they had received from the Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Health Information revised figures on the deaths of breast cancer patients who had their hormone receptor tests redone. The new numbers show that 322 people have died.
Last May, it was revealed through a court affidavit from a health board official that 176 breast cancer patients had died.
It's not known how many of the patients received incorrect results from their tests, nor the cause of death of the patients.
The government says it has also been determined that for 44 patients, "there is no documentation to verify that they were ever contacted." Of those, nine are now deceased and contact with the remaining 35 is in progress.
Health Minister Ross Wiseman told a news conference Friday that he finds the numbers "extremely troubling, obviously.''
"They're individuals, they're families, they're mothers, they're daughters, and they've all been impacted in a very profound way. Our thoughts are very much with them.''
All of the patients were among more than 1,000 patients under the Eastern Health Authority who were given inaccurate results on the hormone receptor test called an ER/PR test.
The results of a test can be critical to breast cancer patients, since they can help determine the course of treatment. If patients are found to be estrogen and/or progesterone-positive, they may respond better to hormone therapy such as tamoxifen.
All of the new numbers will be forwarded to the that was commissioned in May to look into why there were so many wrong test results and why the errors weren't discovered until 2005. Testimony in that public inquiry is set to start in a matter of days.
Wiseman says the database created to determine just how many patients were affected by the botched tests is now "substantially complete."
"We have examined the database created by the Centre for Health Information and it reinforces a critical lesson for us on the inadequacy of the previous record keeping of Eastern Health related to the problems with ER/PR testing," said Wiseman in a statement.
The test result scandal began in 2005, when doctors questioned hormone receptor test results of a patient with invasive lobular carcinoma. Re-testing showed the initial test result was wrong.
The Eastern Health Authority then arranged for Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto to redo more than 2,000 hormone receptor tests going back to May, 1997.
Test results became available to Eastern Health between October 2005 and February 2006. The authority notified 117 patients whose treatment was changed, but the remainder of the patients was not informed.
At least 26 of the women who received the wrong test results have died, although it's unclear whether their deaths were directly related to their cancer.
Eastern Health Authority CEO George Tilley apologized for the "confusion" in May, 2007. Then in July, Tilley resigned.
About 100 patients have since filed a class-action lawsuit against the health authority.
