Man Finds He Has Metastatic Prostate Cancer Even After 5 Years Of Symptoms And Abnormal Tests

Prostate cancer is a frightening disease

Prostate cancer is a frightening disease. Even though not perfect there are diagnostic tests that aid doctors to verify if a patient has the cancer. Yet due to the possibility of false negatives (a negative test outcome while the patient in reality has cancer) physicians ought to follow up and repeat tests as appropriate if patient complaints and screening tests continue to suggest the possibility of cancer. The failure to do so may give rise to a lawsuit for medical malpractice.

In one published lawsuit a man communcated to his physician that he was having urinary frequency and burning. The doctor started the man on antibiotics and refered him to a urologist. The urologist did a cystoscopy which found that the man had an enlarged prostate. The urologist additionally took a PSA blood test which came back a 16.3 (anything over a 4.0 is ordinarily thought to be abnormal). Because of that the urologist took a biopsy two months later. The biopsy was read by a pathologist as exhibiting no indication of cancer.

The subsequent year the individual went back to the urologist. On this occasion the PSA registered a 2.9 (typically accepted as in normal range). The urologist diagnosed the patient with BPH (a benign enlargement of the prostate). Three months later the man saw the PCP for fever and nocturia (needing to urinate during the night). The doctor put him on a second round of antibiotics. A follow up urine culture came back negative. The primary care physician therefore referred the man to the urologist. The urologist did a PSA test which came back a 6.4 (again, high).

A biopsy analyzes parts of the prostate. As a result, it is possible for a biopsy to not catch the cancer. Yet, the urologist chose to depend on the previous years biopsy and to not do another one as a follow up. Rather, the urologist failed to do anything more concerning the male's symptoms and high PSA.

A year later the patient returned to his primary care physician. Complaints continued to include nocturia. On physical examination the doctor documented that the man had a markedly enlarged prostate. Still, the doctor did not do another a PSA or re-refer the individual to a urologist. Routine blood testing four months later revealed that the mans PSA was at 7.4 Neither physician did anything to follow up.

One more year goes by at which time the primary care physician recorded that the PSA level was 9.8 Again, no follow up or referral to a urologist. Still one more year and the individual is still complaining about nocturia. Now the PSA was 9.7 No follow up and no referral. On the fifth yea following the mans first claims of urinary problems the primary care physician once more documented a substantially enlarged prostate gland and a PSA that had reached a 31. The physician finally refered the individual back to the urologist.

The urologist verified that the patients prostate was enlarged and started the man a 2 week regimen of antibiotics to be followed by another PSA blood test. After the PSA test was repeated 2 weeks soon after it recorded a level of 33. A biopsy was then finally done which uncovered cancer in all 6 of the samples.

Testing later uncovered that the patient had prostate cancer which had spread to the lymph nodes, the liver and the bone. Even after a course of both hormone therapy and radiation therapy the patient passed away nearly 18 months after his diagnosis. The law firm that handled this matter reported that a settlement for S1.0 Million was attained in the case.

by: Joseph Hernandez

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