Ottawa (ECN) - After holding information for over a month that concluded that breast cancer tests had been botched, Quebec's Health Minister Yves Bolduc is finally asking the the nations cancer specialists to help, calling an emergency meeting with a group to be held on Sunday, May 31st.
In this emergency meeting, it is expected Bolduc will be asking Ontario's hemato-oncologists and pathologists for recommendations which could include the order of new laboratory tests for breast cancer patients or the re-evaluation of existing patient tissue samples again.
Marie-Ève Bédard, the press attahé to Bolduc stated,"We don't have time to wait for a second study because women are feeling anxious. Answers are needed rapidly."
An estimated 6,000 women in Quebec are diagnosed with breast cancer every year. An estimated 1,400 of that 6,000 will die of the cancer.
At 811 Info Santé, Quebec's free health information line, Nurses answered questions from worried cancer patients as soon as the hotline was announced Wednesday night, in light of the disaster.
Roseanne Lachance, Info-Santé's director claimed that by mid-afternoon in Montreal, they had recived over 100 extra calls, most of these from women seeking reassurance their tests had been properly done and are reliable.
Callers are asking why they were not told earlier, though some are fearful enough to ask what they should do, some even wondering if all treatment should be stopped.
Lachance stated that the nurses respond by urging Montreal's women to continue their treatment until after a new governmentally published guideline, hopefully published soon.
