DURHAM, UK — An NHS trust in County Durham is to review up to 4,500 additional breast cancer cases after an investigation found delayed diagnoses, treatment that did not follow best practice and cases of unnecessary surgery.
County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust has agreed to extend its breast surgery review to cases dating back to 2015, following findings of harm among patients treated under its breast services.
Trust leaders apologised to women and families affected by the failings during an extraordinary board meeting in Durham.
Trust apologises to affected women
Board chair Alison Marshall offered a “sincere apology” to patients and their families.
“I would like to offer a sincere apology to all the women and their families who have been affected by the failings in our breast services,” Marshall said.
She acknowledged the impact on patients and said the trust could not “turn back the clock”, but promised to be “open, honest and transparent” about what went wrong.
Chief executive Steve Russell also said the trust was “incredibly conscious” of the distress, uncertainty and harm experienced by women and their families.
Review found hundreds of patients harmed
The trust’s existing breast surgery lookback review began in April 2025, initially examining cases treated between January 2023 and February 2025.
Chief nurse Gill Hunt told the board that 538 cases had been reviewed so far.
The trust said approximately 640 patients had also contacted a dedicated helpline seeking a review of their cases.
The review has so far cost about £523,000 in its first year, with nine reviewers examining approximately 80 cases each month.
Review expanded back to 2015
The board agreed to extend the review by one year at a time until it reaches cases dating back to 2015.
The expanded investigation is expected to cover as many as 4,500 additional cases and could take approximately five years to complete.
Hunt said the extension would provide a “proportionate and evidence-led clinical approach” in response to emerging findings.
She said decisions would be supported by clear clinical reasoning and formal governance processes.
Concerns were first raised in 2015
Hunt told the board that concerns about the breast service were first raised in 2015, following a service reconfiguration and the loss of breast surgical trainee positions.
Further concerns were subsequently raised by patients and organisations, including the Northern Cancer Alliance, Care Quality Commission and NHS England.
The review identified several key themes, including treatment that was not aligned with best practice, excessive surgery, and delayed diagnosis.
The findings follow earlier BBC reporting on the failings and interviews with women who said they had been affected.
One patient described feeling “mutilated” and called the trust’s mistakes “absolutely unforgivable”.
Some women may be offered reconstruction
Russell said the trust would support women affected by the failings.
He said some women who underwent unnecessary mastectomies could be offered breast reconstruction surgery, which he said should previously have been available to them.
The trust said it has since made changes to its breast services.
Russell said the service is currently exceeding national standards in areas including breast-conserving surgery and the number of women offered immediate reconstruction.
Trust says current patients are safer
Russell said the current performance of the service did not change what had happened to women in the past, but argued that improvements had affected patient outcomes.
He said patients receiving treatment now could be “confident” they would be treated appropriately and receive good clinical outcomes.
The dedicated helpline will remain open, with patients encouraged to contact the trust if they have concerns about treatment, regardless of when they were treated.
The expanded review will now examine thousands more historical cases as the trust seeks to establish the extent of the failings and identify further patients who may have been affected.
