Fraser Health receives new breast cancer screening technology

Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster has been gifted a new diagnostic analyzing device to help deliver results to breast cancer patients quicker.

The machine known as Ventana BenchMark ULTRA wasn’t previously available through Fraser Health, according to the health authority.

It helps determine how aggressive the type of a breast cancer each patient has, and in turn helps decide a treatment plan.

Previous results could take up to a month to receive, but according to Dr. Carolyn Shiau, results can now come in less than week.

"It's that hurry up and wait that's really hard to manage, so anything we can do in this process, any little improvement we can make to speed up getting those results to patients and clinicians is totally worth trying,” said Shiau, the regional medical director for laboratory medicine and pathology with the Fraser Health Authority.

“It’s going to allow us to do this test within a week, which is fantastic for patients. It allows us to give their information back to them, back to their clinicians so they can make an informed decision about treatment.”

The machine specifically looks for a HER2 protein, which is found on the surface of cells that may cause cancer to grow quickly.

"It's important for us to determine what is the HER2 result for these patients so that we can help our clinicians work with patients to determine, should I have surgery first, should I have chemotherapy first, should I have targeted therapy and try to determine the best path forward," she said. 

Tania Gardner was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, before the new machine was available in B.C.

"You hear the word 'cancer' and you automatically think, 'Holy moly, I am going to die,’” said Gardner.

While the diagnosis was devastating, she says waiting to find out how severe her cancer was was also gut wrenching.

"You're told you have to wait for three to four weeks, and it is like, your brain goes to dark places right? Because you don't have any answers, you know you have cancer, you know you have something in you that's going to try to kill you."

Three weeks later she decided to have a double mastectomy.

She says she’s encouraged to know other women won’t have to wait as long anymore for their results.

The new $150,000 diagnostic analyzer at Royal Columbian Hospital will allow pathologists to quickly determine if a tissue sample is HER2 positive.

“We are ever so grateful to the Drive for the Cure Foundation and Sanjeev Garg and Seema Garg whose generous support of the HER2 analyzer made this project possible,” said Jeff Norris, president and CEO of Royal Columbian Hospital Foundation. “We are humbled by the continued support we see from donors who share our mission to provide the best in care for people in our province, and who step forward fund important equipment such as this.”