EON

Over the last year, women in Quebec were faced with the uncertain and disturbing notion that their breast cancer screening results could have been faulty. After several test results turned out to be wrong at a single facility, allegations were brought up concerning the methods used at the facility and the accuracy of the results, prompting an inquiry under nation-wide scrutiny.

Though the report concluded that there was no wrongdoing by the lab, it also recommended that over two thousand women be retested for breast cancer as a precautionary measure, more to reassure patients than because the results were questionable.

The report did say that there could be up to a five percent margin of error in the tests, meaning some patients may receive different results the second time. While this may seem substantial, the inquiry found that the rate of incorrect results was actually similar to other labs across Canada and that the disparity was not as unusual as the allegations suggested.

Even with the erroneous results, the report strongly asserted that this did not indicate that any woman received incorrect treatment, since all doctors take multiple factors into consideration when making a diagnosis, not just one test results.