Breast Cancer Patients in Khoo Teck Puat Hospital Received Unnecessary Treatment
A private hospital in Singapore, KTPH, figured out that its laboratory is producing wrong results for patients with breast cancer. The hospital is worried that as many as 90 patients have got wrong positive results from their results from 2012.
While KTPH is ready to compensate them for their treatment, the side effects include heart problems, fever, chills, and diarrhea. The hospital stated that its human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 test, known as HER2, produced wrong positive results. Up to 180 people got their results of which 90 went under unnecessary treatment.
The HER2 test is one of the most common tests which is used to diagnose the stage and aggressiveness of breast cancer. The medical team decides about the type of treatment that the patient needs to be based on this test.
For a HER2 test, the tissue sample from the patient is stained with antibodies, and those having colored dye attach them to HER2 proteins. The hospital was fast to identify all the patients who were affected. KPTH further sent their samples to other laboratories and figured all those patients who got the wrong treatment.
As soon as KPTH start getting the updated results, it started contacting the affected patients. They have also stopped in-house testing for breast cancer till the final inspection of the lab and seeing other measures. 3 weeks ago, KPTH informed NHG about the incident while the same was reported to the Ministry of Health on Nov 24th.
When asked about the incident, the Chief Executive of KPTH, Mrs. Chew Kwee Tiang expressed her deepest apologies to the affected patients. She said that we are sorry for the incident and are ready to provide all the necessary support for the affected patients. She further added that we will take the best care of all patients.
Ministry of Health stated on Friday and said that we requested KPTH to further check their labs and check if any issues still exist. The statement mentioned that KPTH has to follow all regulations which are for private hospitals and clinics. If they fail to follow the protocols, we will take appropriate action.
Sahar Rashid is the founder of the BenjaNews and the iPhone-Appstore website. She is a professional blogger and article writer.
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