subject: Why A Medical Malpractice Case Might Follow A Physician's Delay In Diagnosing Prostate Cancer [print this page] Imagine you are a man and you see 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.So far, so good.This is how to check if a male without any symptoms of prostate cancer may in fact have it.Imagine the tests came back outside the normal range
Yet, there is still debate amid some physicians over the way to test asymptomatic male patients for prostate cancer or even if screening is even appropriate.These physicians hold that screening has little, if any, value. One factor, nevertheless, continues to be consistent.If the result of a screening test is abnormal the man ought to be informed about the results and either be referred to a specialist or be advised about the option for diagnostic testing, such as a biopsy.Again, though, a number of doctors also believe that, at least under certain situations, a male patient who is diagnosed with prostate cancer does not have to treat it immediately and only needs to carefully monitor the cancer.
Should this happen, the cancer becomes incurable before the patient turns symptomatic and is finally diagnosed.Unfortunately, if a doctor noted that the patient's prostate was enlarged or there was a nodule on the gland and the PSA test results suggested abnormally high levels of the antigen and the doctor failed to inform the man about the abnormal results,the man would probably believe that meant there was no need to follow up.
The lengthier the delay in actually performing tests that will lead to a diagnosis of the cancer the larger the risk that when it is eventually diagnosed the cancer will have attained an advanced stage.This will greatly lessen treatment options, will remove the likelihood of a cure, and will cut short the patient's life.There is a group of cases in which the man was ultimately diagnosed yet by that time the cancer was metastatic and a cure was no longer a possibility.
Screening tests might yield false positives.This means that a percentage of patients with abnormal screening results will not have cancer.Yet performing screening tests for cancer is meaningless if there is no follow up as it gives the patient a false sense of security thinking that he has no cancer as the doctor screened him but said nothing to him that the screening tests demonstrated he might have cancer.Doctors normally concur that there is a requirement for follow up when the results of screening tests come back as abnormal.
by:J. Hernandez
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