There are 2 errors that physicians are most likely to make that may delay the diagnosis of a female patient's breast cancer - failing to do diagnostic tests to exclude the possibility of cancer when a lump is felt in the breast and misreading a mammogram. Should a doctor make one of these errors and in so doing delays the diagnosis of the cancer until it spreads, the woman might have a claim for medical malpractice.
The first most common error made by doctors is not performing any diagnostic testing when a female patient says that she noticed a mass during a self-conducted breast examination or the doctor discovers the lump during a routine clinical breast examination. A number of physicians will assure the patient what she has is merely a noncancerous cyst, especially if the woman is under 40 and has no family history of breast cancer.
But, despite the fact that most new incidents of breast cancer occur in women older than 50, younger females can, and are, diagnosed with breast cancer daily. Further, a doctor cannot establish, based on a clinical breast examination, if a mass in the breast is a benign cyst or is a cancerous mass. This is why a physician ought to order 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, not ordering diagnostic testing can result in the growth and spread of the cancer.
The other most likely error made by doctors is to incorrectly interpret a mammogram. Mammograms are taken to see structures in the breast that might be cancerous. The mammogram creates images of the inside of the breast with x-rays of the patient's compressed breast. The resulting images are then analyzed by doctors for the existence of abnormalities that might be cancerous. However, physicians in some cases overlook what is basically in front of their eyes. Sometimes physicians miss an abnormality that turns up in the mammogram. In some other cases, physicians improperly diagnose an abnormal structure or change as benign without ordering any diagnostic examination like a biopsy to exclude the possibility of cancer.
By making either mistake a physician may cause a delay in the detection of the woman's breast 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 becomes advanced, the treatment possibilities for the woman are reduced. Moreover, her 5-year survival rate, the likelihood she has of surviving the cancer for 5 years or more, even with treatment, diminishes significantly.
Once the cancer reaches 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 eighty percent, possibly even above 95% if it had been diagnosed sufficiently early.
Medical errors can lead to tragic effects. This is particularly so for patients with cancer. The delay in diagnosis can end in the loss of the breast, reduced treatment options, and in some cases, may be even lead to the death of the individual. Under such circumstances, medical errors like those described above might amount to medical malpractice
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting medical malpractice cases. You can learn more about
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