Men tend to have a lack of awareness when it comes to issues surrounding prostate cancer, their own risk for the cancer, and the methods available for detecting whether they have prostate cancer. Many men have limited, if any, knowledge of the advantage of screening for prostate cancer or of the recommendations for when to commence testing, how often to screen, and the meaning of screening test results. They simply put their belief in their doctor to let them know what they should do to stay healthy.
Cases involving the delayed diagnosis of prostate cancer cases are all too common. This article will consider the following fact pattern: the physician (1)
screens the individual for prostate cancer by keeping track of the amount of PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) in his system, (2) notices abnormally raised levels of PSA and but (3) neither informs the patient of abnormal results (and what they suggest) nor orders diagnostic tests, for instance - a biopsy, to eliminate prostate cancer. Examine the following case, for instance:
In this reported case a man found out he had prostate cancer after he followed up when told by his internist that he most likely had cancer. The issue in this case was that the doctor did not tell the patient that he might have cancer until the third year of raised PSA test results. The year before the man's PSA level had increased to 13.6. Two years prior to that it had been at 8.0 During these years the physician did nothing to rule out prostate cancer as the cause of these high readings and did not tell the patient about the abnormal test results or the possibility that he might have cancer. By the time he was diagnosed he had metastatic prostate cancer and surgery was not one of the treatment alternatives. Rather the man underwent radiation therapy and hormone
therapy in an attempt to slow down the further progression of the cancer. The law firm that took this matter on reported that the case proceeded to mediation and settled for $600,000.
If a doctor does not do anything in the presence of abnormal test results and the person subsequently finds out that he had prostate cancer all along and that the wait led to the cancer spreading outside the prostate gland, thus decreasing treatment alternatives that are available and lowering his chances of surviving the cancer, the person might be able to successfully pursue a malpractice lawsuit against the physician.
As the above lawsuit illustrates physicians sometimes follow the guidelines by performing screening for prostate cancer but when the test results are
abnormal they do not follow through.
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney acceping medical malpractice matters. Visit his website to learn more about
advanced prostate cancer cases visit the website at for a free attorney consultation with a
cancer lawyerDistributed by ContentCrooner.com
