subject: Tests Disclose Chance Of Cancer But Doctor Fails to Inform Patient [print this page] Tests Disclose Chance Of Cancer But Doctor Fails to Inform Patient
Male patients tend to possess a scant knowledge of prostate cancer, their own risk for the cancer, and the ways in which they can figure out if they have prostate cancer. Many men have minimal, if any, knowledge of the merit of screening for prostate cancer or of the recommendations for when they should start testing, how frequently to screen, and the meaning of screening test results. They simply put their faith in their doctor to tell them what they should do to remain healthy.
Delayed diagnosis of prostate cancer examples are all too common. A common type of medical mistake that is at the root of these cases arises when the male patient's family doctor (1) screens the patient for prostate cancer by monitoring the amount of PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) in his bloodstream, (2) discovers that the patient has a high PSA level, but (3) neither informs the patient of abnormal results (and what they suggest) nor orders diagnostic tests, for example a biopsy, to exclude prostate cancer. The claim below is an example of this problem.
In this reported lawsuit a male patient discovered he had prostate cancer after he followed up when advised by his internist that he probably had cancer. The issue in this case was that the physician did not tell the patient that he could have cancer until the third year of elevated PSA test results. The year prior the patient's PSA level had increased to 13.6. Two years prior to that it had been at 8.0 Throughout these years the doctor did nothing to rule out prostate cancer as the source of these elevated readings and did not inform the patient. Further testing showed that at this point the patient had advanced prostate cancer. A prostatectomy was no longer an option. Treating physicians instead advised radiation therapy and hormone therapy. Neither of these would cure the cancer but they might slow the cancer's advancement and additional spread. The law firm that handled this matter reported that they took the lawsuit to mediation where they achieved a settlement of $600,000.
When they do not do anything in the presence of abnormal test results and the man later finds out that he had prostate cancer and that the lapse of time resulted in it spreading beyond the prostate thus decreasing treatment options and decreasing his chances of surviving the cancer, he might have a claim for medical malpractice against the physician.
As the above claim demonstrates doctors sometimes comply with the guidelines by performing screening for prostate cancer yet if the test results are abnormal they fail to do anything about it.
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