Georgetown U Hospital closes lab after problems with breast cancer tests

The Washington Post, August 9, 2010

Georgetown University Hospital has shut down a lab that performs genetic analysis for breast cancer patients and has had 249 women's tissue samples independently retested while federal health officials investigate procedures at the lab. Hospital officials said the process ultimately identified two women who had been falsely told they did not have a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer, known as HER2 positive. The allegedly improper testing took place over 11 months starting in May 2009. The lab received failing results from a quality-control assessment of its HER2 testing in January 2010, and in the following weeks an employee asked supervisors to notify patients and recommend retesting.