The Most Frequent Errors Made By Doctors That Delay The Detection Of Breast Cancer

Situations regarding the delayed detection of breast cancer commonly involve one

of two medical mistakes - (1) not performing any diagnostic testing to rule out cancer when a lump is felt in the breast and (2) misinterpreting a mammogram. Should a doctor make one of these mistakes and thus holds up the detection of the cancer until it spreads, she may have a case for malpractice. The first error made by physicians is not performing any diagnostic testing when a woman complains that she identified a lump during a self-conducted breast examination or the physician finds the lump during a screening clinical breast examination. Some physicians will inform the woman she has only a benign cyst, particularly if she is younger than 40 and does not have a of breast cancer in her family.

Regrettably, despite the fact that the majority of new cases of breast cancer occur in females more than fifty years old, younger females can, and are, diagnosed with breast cancer daily. Further, a doctor cannot establish, using only a clinical breast examination, if a mass in the breast is a benign cyst or a cancerous mass. For this reason a physician ought to recommend diagnostic testing in order to figure out whether the mass is cancerous. Among the tests that can be ordered are a mammogram, a biopsy or an aspiration.

In case the patient does indeed have have breast cancer, not recommending diagnostic testing can result in the metastasis of the cancer.

The other mistake made by physicians is to misread a mammogram. Doctors use mammograms to picture structures in the breast that could be cancerous. The mammogram creates images of the inside of the breast with low dose x-rays of the patients compressed breast. The ensuing images are then examined by doctors for the presence of any structures or changes that might be cancerous.

However, physicians occasionally overlook what is basically in front of their eyes. Sometimes doctors miss an abnormal structure or change that turns up in the mammogram. Other times, doctors improperly diagnose an abnormal structure or change as harmless without ordering any diagnostic examination like a biopsy to exclude the possibility of cancer.

Either of the mistakes can produce a delay in the diagnosis of the woman's breast cancer. The longer the detection of breast cancer is delayed, the more likely it is that the cancer will spread and reach an advanced stage. If the cancer spreads, the treatment options available to the woman are more limited. Furthermore, the woman's 5-year survival rate, the likelihood she has of surviving the cancer for five years or more, even with treatment, diminishes considerably.

At Stage III, it is approximately 55%. By Stage IV, it can be as low as 20%. If the cancer had been detected early, the 5-year survival rate would have been over 80 percent, perhaps even over 95% if it had been detected sufficiently early.

Medical errors can lead to deadly consequences. This is particularly so for people with cancer. Any hold up to the detection of the cancer may result in the need for a mastectomy, limited treatment possibilities, and under certain circumstances, may be even lead to the death of the individual. Under such circumstances, errors like those described above might constitute malpractice.

The law limits the amount of time a victim of medical malpractice and her family have in which to pursue any resulting legal claim(s). Therefore, if you suspect that you or a family member have been the victim of medical malpractice, you should speak to an attorney without delay.

by: Joseph Hernandez

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