subject: How A Malpractice Claim May Result From Physician's Delay In Detecting Prostate Cancer [print this page] Imagine that your doctor physically examines your prostate gland for any signs of possible cancer including an enlargement or a hardening of the prostate and whether there are any growths present on the gland. Imagine the physician orders blood tests, including a PSA test for the early diagnosis of prostate cancer. So far, so good. This is the way to check whether a male without any symptoms of prostate cancer might actually have it. Imagine the tests came back outside the normal range
However, some physicians do not suggest male patients without symptoms to screen for prostate cancer. They argue that screening has little, if any, value. If the result of a screening test is abnormal the patient should be told about the results and either be referred to a specialist or be told about the option for diagnostic testing, such as a biopsy. Again, though, a number of physicians also believe that, at least under certain situations, a male patient diagnosed with prostate cancer does not need to undergo treatment right away and simply has to carefully monitor the cancer.
Should this happen, the cancer becomes incurable before the patient turns symptomatic and is finally diagnosed. However, if a doctor noted that the patient's prostate was enlarged or there was a nodule on the gland and the PSA test results indicated high levels of the antigen and the doctor did not notify the patient about the abnormal results, the man would probably assume that meant the results were all normal.
Should the man does actually have cancer, not telling the patient that he might have cancer will cause a delay in his diagnosis.
A delay could, in turn, allow the cancer to metastasize. Once a cancer metastasizes treatment can at best lessen the pace of the continuing growth of the cancer and lower the effects (such as pain) of the cancer. Under such circumstances, that male and his family may have a failure to diagnose medical malpractice claim against the physician.
Screening tests might yield false positives. This means that certain patients with abnormal screening results will not have cancer. But performing screening tests for cancer is meaningless if there is no follow up as it provides the patient an incorrect sense of security believing he has no cancer as the doctor tested him but said nothing to him that the tests demonstrated he might have cancer. Doctors commonly concur that there is a need for follow up if the results of screening tests come back as abnormal.
by: Joseph Hernandez
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