What Happens When Physicians Do Not Follow Up On Abnormal Digital Exam And Psa Testing

Imagine you are a man and you go to your physician for your yearly checkup

. Imagine the physician orders blood tests, including a PSA test which is used for the early detection of prostate cancer. This is the way to check if a male without any symptoms of prostate cancer may actually have it. Imagine the tests came back outside the normal range

But, there is still debate amid some doctors over the way to screen asymptomatic men for prostate cancer or even if screening is even important. They argue that screening has little, if any, value. If the result of a screening test is abnormal the patient ought to be informed about the results and either be referred to a specialist or be told about the option for diagnostic testing, for example a biopsy. Once more, though, a number of physicians also believe that, at least under certain instances, a man diagnosed with prostate cancer does not have to undergo treatment right away and simply has to carefully monitor the cancer.

If the physician does not give the patient the option to undergo screening or fails to tell the patient about the abnormal test results the patients prostate cancer may spread and metastasize without the man even knowing he may have cancer. However, if a doctor detected that the patients prostate was enlarged or there was a nodule on the gland and the PSA test results indicated abnormally high levels of the antigen and the doctor failed to tell the man about the abnormal results, the patient would likely think that meant the results were all normal.

Should the man does really have cancer, not telling the patient that he might have cancer will postpone his diagnosis.

A delay may, in turn, give the cancer time to reach an advanced stage. When a cancer metastasizes treatment can at best slow down the progression of the cancer and reduce the effects (such as pain) of the cancer. Under such circumstances, that man and his family might have a failure to diagnose medical malpractice claim against the physician.

Screening tests could yield false positives. This means that certain patients with abnormal screening results actually do not have cancer. Yet performing screening tests for cancer is meaningless without follow up as it gives the patient a false sense of security thinking he has no cancer as the doctor tested him and said nothing to him that the tests showed the possibility of cancer. Doctors commonly agree the need for follow up if the results of screening tests come back as abnormal.

by: Joseph Hernandez

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