Breast cancer expert says misdiagnosis rare after two Territory woman wrongly diagnosed by RDH specialist

IT’S rare a pathologist would mistake a benign tumour for a malignant tumour and “very, very rare” it would happen to the same doctor twice, according to a breast cancer expert

Two women had their breasts removed unnecessarily after they were misdiagnosed with cancer at Royal Darwin Hospital.

IT’S rare a pathologist would mistake a benign tumour for a malignant tumour and “very, very rare” it would happen to the same doctor twice, according to a breast cancer expert.

Dr Laura Garcia Carrascosa of the University of Queensland told the NT News the fact two women had undergone mastectomies on the back of “false positive” test results was the result of serious professional shortcomings.

“It is probably because the pathologist has a particular problem either he is not qualified or has a tendency to not to do the proper tests he is supposed to do and makes decisions too quickly,” Dr Garcia Carrascosa said. “A mastectomy is a very invasive procedure and usually only done when the clinician knows it's a malignant tumour.”

Dr Garcia Carrascosa said any detection method could have problems and human error was possible in cancer detection. “It’s extremely important to do a range of tests to really categorise what type of tumour it is,” she said.

“Sometimes you may not need surgery at all — the decision was taken probably too quickly to perform surgery.

“Whatever decision you take it should be really clearly explained to the person so they have the opportunity to make an informed decision.”

Meanwhile, the head of the Australian Medical Association in the Territory, Dr Rob Parker, cautioned Territorians against jumping on a plane to seek medical attention.

“Any hospital in Australia is likely to have problems,” he said. “I have been treated at RDH and I’d be confident to be treated there again.”

Dr Parker said RDH boasted a broad range of clinicians, highly skilled and committed to quality care.