Hundreds face cancer tests checks

Prostate cancer accounts for a quarter of cancers in men

Hundreds of men from across Carmarthenshire face an anxious wait after it was revealed mistakes were made in prostate cancer tests.

Carmarthenshire NHS Trust has sent letters to 528 patients who had prostate biopsies after checks revealed discrepancies.

It will take up to seven weeks for the necessary checks to be made and some patients could be recalled.

The trust has apologised and an information helpline has been set up.

All of the men affected showed potentially cancerous markers in initial blood tests, and were sent for a prostate biopsy, where the possible errors occurred.

According to a Carmarthenshire NHS Trust spokesman, routine checks of the pathology examinations of prostate biopsies taken since Christmas revealed two errors to have been made.

Given the all-clear

Neither incident proved life-threatening, and as a precautionary measure, all 528 prostate biopsies carried out by the trust in 2008 have been referred to an external agency for further analysis.

As a precaution, all results issued by the laboratory during this period are being re-examined. The trust said it anticipates that if any mistakes have taken place, the numbers will be very small.

However, it said some patients could have been given the all-clear when they do in fact have prostate cancer, which accounts for a quarter of cancers in men.

While all the diagnoses currently under investigation were carried out at the pathology lab in West Wales General Hospital in Carmarthenshire, the biopsies themselves could have been taken at either West Wales General or Prince Philip Hospital in Llanelli.

Carmarthenshire NHS Trust said in cases where inaccuracies have occurred, patients will be contacted directly.

The biopsies could have been taken at West Wales General Hospital

The trust's chief executive Paul Barnett said: "The trust would like to publicly apologise for any distress this may cause the patients involved and to reassure them that the necessary steps are being taken to ensure that any errors are detected and dealt with as soon as possible."

The incident is the third in Wales in the past six months, and the second in Carmarthenshire. In the previous case, a pathologist at Llanelli's Prince Phillip hospital was sacked after making mistakes in 34 examinations, resulting in ten patients being put on the wrong treatment regime.

Patients in Wrexham Maelor Hospital were also told they had nothing to worry about, despite some tissue tests showing signs of cancer.

An internal investigation is now underway in Carmarthenshire to establish whether the latest incident is the work of one person, or due to a more general systemic failure.

An information line has been set up for anyone who may have concerns or queries and can be contacted between the hours of 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday on 01267 227717/ 227724