Breast cancer misdiagnosis leads to surgery and trauma for woman in her 30s
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A woman in her 30s underwent breast surgery after being misdiagnosed with cancer during a routine health checkup, only to later learn that her test sample had been switched with that of another patient, leading to a mistaken diagnosis.
According to reports on Sunday, including coverage by KBS, a woman received a breast cancer diagnosis last September at a medical institution in Sejong. The checkup was part of a company welfare program offered by her husband’s employer. The hospital informed her that a biopsy had revealed a malignant tumor.
“I felt like the sky was collapsing,” the woman said. “It’s hard to believe, but they told me that since I’m young and healthy, the cancer might spread faster. I cried in front of the doctor.”
Shocked by the diagnosis, she sought a second opinion at a major hospital in Seoul, where another biopsy showed no signs of cancer. To be certain, she underwent surgery under general anesthesia to remove about six centimeters of tissue from her left breast.
“At that point, there were too many possibilities,” she said. “It was so early they might have missed it, so surgery was the only way to get a definitive answer.”
The extracted tissue revealed no cancer cells. Instead, it showed fibroadenoma, a benign tumor commonly found in Korean women. She was even more disturbed when she learned that the initial biopsy results were from a completely different sample.
When she returned to the original clinic to demand an explanation, the institution admitted that the error occurred at an external pathology lab, which had mixed up her tissue sample with one from another woman who had been tested a day earlier. “The labeling process went wrong, and Ms. A was mistaken for Ms. B," the head of the clinic said. "Ms. B was also confused when we told her she had cancer three months later.”
The pathology lab acknowledged its error. “It’s clear that the mistake was on our end. We sincerely apologize to the patient and her family.”
Despite the apology, the woman says she continues to suffer from the consequences of the misdiagnosis, including a surgical scar and disrupted plans to conceive. She is currently receiving psychiatric treatment.
“My self-esteem has dropped so much,” she said. “I look in the mirror and feel terrible. I wanted to breastfeed my child.”
She now plans to take legal action against both the clinic and the pathology lab.
This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.