A significant number of prostate biopsy tests performed this past summer at the Royal Alexandria Hospital were inaccurate, leading to possible misdiagnoses and mistreatment.
The stunning news came out Friday afternoon at a news conference with Health Minister Fred Horne. Horne also announced that he was asking the Health Quality of Council of Alberta to look into the issue.
A retest of 126 prostate biopsies conducted between July and September has found significant differences in 29 cases. In 14 of the 29 cases the discrepancies amounted to an underestimation of the aggressiveness of prostate cancer and in 15 of those cases the pathologist appears to have missed small numbers of cancer cells.
More minimal differences, which were not expected to cause treatment problems, were found in a further 46 cases and in 51 cases there were no differences from the original test.
The retest was ordered after several urologists at the hospital raised accuracy concerns. A total of 159 tests are being re-examined. The remaining retests are expected to be completed next week.
All of the original biopsies were conducted by the same pathologist, who was hired on a temporary basis and has since retired. The Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons has been made aware of the incident.
In a news release, the minster said he was taking the issue very seriously, but it appeared to only concern one doctor.
“It is important to me that the patients involved and all Albertans are confident that their physicians have the most accurate information available in order to diagnose and treat them,” said Horne. “This issue appears to relate to the practice of one physician who is no longer reading pathology specimens.”
Dr. Chris Eagle, the CEO of AHS, said they have jumped into action on the case and notified all urologists who had samples reviewed that might have been questionable.
“We contacted the urologists for all of the patients involved when we became aware of these concerns and asked them to delay any treatment or therapy until each patient’s biopsy was re-read,” he said “Patients with urgent cases or treatment plans had their slides re-read first to allow physicians to respond quickly.”
Patients who had tests that are now being re-read are being contacted and Eagle said they would be expedited into new appointments with their doctors.
The pathologist also read another 1,568 non-prostate samples and those are also being re-read. AHS officials said that would happen quickly, but also stressed there was no evidence that those samples were misread.
AHS has created a special information line for possibly affected patients who might have concerns or questions and were treated at the hospital in the past six months. That number is 1-866-301-2668.
