FREDERICTON - Health officials in Fredericton say they have corrected problems with hormone tests for breast cancer after they had a number of false negatives at a local laboratory several years ago.
Dr. Barbara Bulleid, chief of staff at the Everett Chalmers Hospital, says the problem came to light after a breast cancer patient was re-tested in Saint John and the results were different from those in the Fredericton laboratory.
Bulleid says 28 women who had negative results in the Fredericton lab were re-tested and five turned out to have false negatives - a situation that can affect the kind of treatment a patient receives.
Bulleid says the women were given the correct treatment and are now doing fine.
The problem came to light during testimony last week at a public inquiry in Newfoundland and Labrador into flawed breast cancer tests in that province.
Bulleid says hormone tests in Fredericton are now routinely double checked by a hospital in Moncton.
