When Physicians Fail To Follow Up After PSA Results Indicate The Chance Of Prostate Cancer

When Physicians Fail To Follow Up After PSA Results Indicate The Chance Of Prostate Cancer

Men often possess a lack of awareness of prostate cancer, their own risk for the cancer, and how to determine whether they have prostate cancer. Most male patients do not even know what it means to test for prostate cancer or that screening should be done before they develop symptoms. Yet, far too often, doctors diagnose the cancer only after it is past the early stages on account of deficient of screening.

There are several different factors that might result in a delayed diagnosis. This article will analyze the following pattern: the doctor (1) orders a PSA blood test, (2) discovers that the individual has an elevated PSA level, but (3) neither informs him of abnormal results (and what they indicate) nor orders diagnostic tests, like a biopsy, to rule out prostate cancer. Examine the following lawsuit, for instance:

In this reported case a male patient discovered he had prostate cancer after he followed up when told by his internist that he most likely had cancer. The problem in this case was that the internist did not tell the patient that he might have cancer until the third year of elevated 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 Throughout these years the physician took no action to rule out prostate cancer as the cause of these high readings and did not tell the patient. By the time he was diagnosed he had metastatic prostate cancer and surgery was no longer among the treatment alternatives. Treating doctors instead recommended radiation therapy and hormone therapy. Neither of these would eliminate the cancer but they might impede the cancer's progress and further spread. The law firm that handled this matter reported that they took the case 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 subsequently learns that he had prostate cancer and that the delay lead to it growing outside the prostate therefore limiting treatment alternatives and lessening his likelihood of surviving the cancer, he might have a claim for medical malpractice against the doctor.

This case illustrates a type of mistake that can lead to the delayed diagnosis of a patient's prostate cancer. It comes about when the doctor actually follows the guidelines and screens male patients for prostate cancer but does not follow through when the test results are abnormal.

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