Why You Might Not Discover You Have Colon Cancer Until It Has Metastasized
The very use of the term "colon cancer" tends to raise dread in nearly all of people
. It can therefore feel very reassuring for your doctor tell you that you just have hemorrhoids and there is no need to worry about the blood in your stool. Yet this reassurance should not be given until the doctor has eliminated the likelihood of colon cancer (and other possibly serious gastrointestinal issues). Otherwise, you may not discover that you have colon cancer until it is too late. If a physician who automatically considers that claims of blood in the stool or rectal bleeding by a patient are from hemorrhoids and it eventually is discovered that the patient had colon cancer all along, that doctor might not have met the standard of care and the patient may have a legal claim against that physician.
It is projected that there are presently at least 10 million people with hemorrhoids and another million new instances of hemorrhoids will probably arise this year. In comparison, a little over the 100 thousand new cases of colon cancer that will be diagnosed . Further, colon cancers do not always. In the event that they do, the bleeding may be non-consistent. And based on the location of the cancer in the colon, the blood may not even be apparent in the stool. Perhaps it is simply due to the difference in the volume of instances being identified that a number of doctors just assume that the existence of blood in the stool or rectal bleeding is due to hemorrhoids. This is gambling, pure and simple.
A doctor making this diagnosis is going to be right greater than 90% of the time. It sounds realistic, right? The problem, though, is that if the doctor is inaccurate in this diagnosis, the patient might not learn he or she has colon cancer before it has reached a late stage, maybe even to the point where it is no longer treatable.
This is why physicians typically advise that a colonoscopy should be done immediately if someone complains of blood in the stool or rectal bleeding. A colonoscopy is a method that uses a flexible tube with a camera on the end is employed to examine the inside of the colon. In the event that something is found during the procedure, it might be possible to take it out then and there if it is not very large. In any case, it will be biopsied to check for cancer. Colon cancer may properly be eliminated as the cause of the blood providing that a colonoscopy detects no cancer
However, if the cancer is diagnosed after it has spread beyond the colon and has reached the lymph nodes, the person's five year survival rate will generally be approximately fifty three percent Aside from surgery to take out the tumor and surrounding portions of the colon treatment for this stage of colon cancer entails chemotherapy in an attempt to get rid of any cancer that might be left in the body. If the cancer spreads to other organs like the liver, lungs, or brain, the person's five year survival rate is lowered to close to 8%. If treatment options exist for a patient at this point, they may include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and other medications. Treatment may or may not still be effective the moment the cancer is this advanced. If treatment ceases to be helpful, colon cancer is fatal. This year, roughly forty eight thousand people will pass away in the U.S. from colon cancer metastasis.
As a result of diagnosing complaints of blood in the stool or rectal bleeding as resulting from hemorrhoids while not doing the appropriate tests to eliminate the possibility of colon cancer, a doctor places the patient at risk of not finding out he or she has colon cancer until it progresses to an advanced, possibly no longer treatable, stage. This might constitute a departure from the accepted standard of medical care and may lead to a malpractice lawsuit.
In the event that you or a family member were assured by a physician that blood in the stool or rectal bleeding were a result of nothing more than hemorrhoids, and were later diagnosed with advanced colon cancer, you need to speak to a lawyer at once. This article is for basic educational usage only and is not intended to be legal (or medical) advice. For any medical problems you should seek advice from doctor. You should not act, or refrain from acting, based upon any information contained herein but ought to instead consult with an attorney. A competent attorney who is experienced in medical malpractice might be able to help you determine should you have a claim for a delay in the diagnosis of the colon cancer. Immediately contact a lawyer are there is a time limit in cases such as these.
by: Joseph Hernandez
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