Errors The Failure To Diagnose Your Breast Cancer Prior To Metastasis May Constitute Medical Malpractice
Article by Joseph Hernandez
Situations regarding the delayed detection of breast cancer typically involve 1 or 2 medical mistakes - failing to do diagnostic tests to rule out cancer when a lump is felt in the breast and misreading a mammogram. Should a physician make one of these mistakes and thus holds up the detection of the cancer until it spreads, the female patient might have a case for malpractice. The first mistake made by doctors is not performing any diagnostic testing in the event that a female patient complains that she discovered a lump while doing a self-conducted breast examination or the doctor finds the lump during a routine clinical breast examination. Certain doctors will inform the woman she has nothing more than a noncancerous cyst, especially if the woman is younger than forty and has no family history of breast cancer.
Yet, even though most new cases of breast cancer happen in women older than 50, younger females can, and are, diagnosed with breast cancer every day. Additionally, a doctor cannot establish, based on a clinical breast examination, if a mass in the breast is a benign cyst or cancer. Because of this , a physician ought to perform diagnostic testing in order to establish whether the mass is cancerous. Among the tests that can be ordered are a mammogram, a biopsy or an aspiration.
If the patient does have breast cancer, the failure to order diagnostic testing can result in the metastasis of the cancer.
The other mistake made by physicians is to misread a mammogram. Doctors use mammograms to check the breast for abnormalities that could be due to cancer. The mammogram makes pictures of the inside of the breast with x-rays of the patient's compressed breast. The ensuing images are then studied by doctors for the presence of any structures or changes that might be cancerous. However, physicians sometimes miss what is basically in front of their eyes. At times physicians miss an abnormality that shows up in the mammogram. In some other cases, doctors incorrectly diagnose an abnormal structure or change as not cancerous without recommending any diagnostic examination such as a biopsy to exclude the possibility of cancer.
By making either error a doctor might be responsible for a delay in the diagnosis of the woman's cancer. The longer the detection of breast cancer is delayed, the more likely it is that the cancer will spread and reach an advanced stage. When the cancer spreads, the treatment possibilities for the woman are more restricted. Furthermore, the woman's 5-year survival rate, the probability that she will be alive at least five years after her diagnosis, even with treatment, lessens significantly.
Once the cancer advances to the third stage, the survival rate drops to fifty-five percent and by the fourth stage it is only approximately twenty percent. Had the cancer been detected early, the 5-year survival rate would have been over 80 percent, possibly even over ninety five percent if it had been detected sufficiently early.
Medical mistakes can have deadly consequences. This is particularly true for women who have cancer. The delay in diagnosis may lead to the need for a mastectomy, reduced treatment options, and in some cases, can be fatal. Under such circumstances, medical mistakes such as those described above might amount to malpractice.
About the Author
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting medical malpractice cases. You can learn more about breast cancer metastasis and colon cancer metastasis by visiting the websites
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