Bill to Cut Labs’ Cancer Test Errors OKd

Legislation aimed at reducing laboratory errors in diagnosing cervical cancer and other forms of cancer was passed Thursday by the Assembly and sent to Gov. George Deukmejian.

Prompted by an alarming number of errors by laboratory technicians in reading Pap smear slides, the measure by Assemblywoman Sally Tanner (D-El Monte) would limit to 80 the number of such slides that a lab worker could read in a day.

“If a woman has cervical cancer and it is not detected through a Pap smear, the results can be lethal,” said Assemblywoman Delaine Eastin (D-Union City). “Accuracy in Pap test screening is of the utmost importance to women.”

The bill, approved by a vote of 45 to 23, would also restrict to 40 the number of slides from other cancer tests that laboratory technicians could read in a day.

In addition, the bill places a limit of 19,000 Pap smear slides that a technician could analyze in a one-year period.

A spokeswoman for Deukmejian said the governor has no position on the bill.

Technicians who read cancer test slides are paid by the number of slides they analyze, thus encouraging them to process as many as possible in a short time. Laboratories have resisted efforts to pay the lab workers more and reduce the rate of inaccurate diagnoses, supporters of the bill said.

About 90% of the slides processed by the laboratories are from Pap smear tests.

“Quality control has been abominable,” Eastin said, citing the case of a woman who had three Pap smear tests that erroneously concluded that she did not have cervical cancer. By the time her fourth test was done accurately, her cancer had become incurable, Eastin said.

Eastin carried the bill on the Assembly floor for Tanner, who is recovering from breast cancer surgery.