Individual With Metastatic Colon Cancer On Account of No Screening By Physician May Have A Claim
Individual With Metastatic Colon Cancer On Account of No Screening By Physician May Have A Claim
The second greatest number of cancer deaths is from colon cancer. Every year, approximately 48,000 people will die as a result of colon cancer. A large number of these deaths might be prevented with early diagnosis and treatment by routine colon cancer screening in advance of when symtoms arise.
When the cancer is found while it is still a small polyp while undergoing a regularly scheduled screening procedure, such as a colonoscopy, the polyp can usually be taken out in the course of the colonoscopy. At this point, there is no need for the surgical removal of any portion of the colon. When the polyp grows into a tumor and reaches Stage 1 or Stage 2, the tumor and a portion of the colon on both sides is surgical taken out. The relative 5-year survival rate is over ninety percent for Stage 1 and seventy three percent for Stage II.
In case the disease reaches a Stage 3, surgery is no longer sufficient. The patient will, in addition, need to have chemotherapy. The relative 5-year survival rate drops to fifty three percent, depending on such variables as the quantity of lymph nodes that show up positive for cancer.
Once the colon cancer gets to the fourth Stage, treatment might necessitate the use of chemotherapy and perhaps additional drugs along with surgery on various organs. Should the size and quantity of tumors in other organs (like the liver and lungs) are small enough, surgery on these organs might be the first treatment, followed by chemotherapy. In some cases the dimensions or quantity of tumors in the different organs eliminates the choice of surgery as part of the treatment.
If chemotherapy and other drugs are able to lower the quantity and size of these tumors, surgery might then turn out to be an option as the second form of treatment. If not, chemotherapy and various drugs (perhaps through clinical trials) might temporarily halt or limit the ongoing spread of the cancer. The relative 5-year survival rate drops to approximately 8%.
The statistics are clear. The time frame in which the cancer is found and treated results in a significant difference. If discovered and treated early, the patient has a high likelihood of outliving the disease. As detection and treatment is delayed, the odds begin shifting against the person so that once the colon cancer reaches Stage 3, the percentage is almost 50/50. Further the odds drop greatly when the cancer gets to Stage 4.
But, all too often doctors fail to advise standard cancer testing to their patients. When the cancer is finally discovered - frequently since the tumor has become so large that it is causing blockage, since the individual has inexplicable anemia that is worsening, or since the patient begins to notice other indications - the colon cancer is a Stage 3 or even a Stage 4. The individual now confronts a very different outlook than if the cancer had been found early by standard screening.
Attorneys who handle cancer cases often refer to this as a "loss of chance" of a better recovery. That is to say, because the doctor did not recommend that the individual have a routine screening test, the cancer is now much more advanced and the individual faces a much lower chance of outliving the cancer. A physician might be liable for malpractice if he or she fails to suggest cancer screening to a patient who subsequently is discovered to have Stage III or Stage IV colon cancer.
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Individual With Metastatic Colon Cancer On Account of No Screening By Physician May Have A Claim