Family Doctor And Urologist Fail To Detect Man's Prostate Cancer For 5 Years
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-07-07 13:30:44 | Word Count: 663
Prostate cancer is a frightening disease. Even though not 100% accurate there are diagnostic tests that help doctors to establish whether the cancer is present in a patient. But because of the prospect of false negatives (a negative test result while the patient in fact has cancer) physicians must follow up and repeat tests as appropriate if patient complaints and screening tests keep showing the possibility of cancer. Not doing so might reslt in a malpractice claim.
In one published lawsuit a man communcated to his primary care doctor that he was experiencing urinary frequency and burning. The doctor started the man on antibiotics and refered him to a urologist. The urologist conducted a cystoscopy which revealed that the man had an enlarged prostate. The urologist also did a PSA blood test which registered a 16.3 (anything higher than a 4.0 is ordinarily accepted as elevated). Because of that the urologist took a biopsy 2 months later. The biopsy was interpreted by a pathologist as containing no sign of cancer.
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The next year the man went back to the urologist. Now the PSA blood test came back a 2.9 (normally considered to be in normal range). The urologist diagnosed the patient with BPH (a benign enlargement of the prostate). Three months later the man saw the primary care physician for fever and nocturia (needing to urinate over the night). The physician put him again on antibiotics. A follow up urine culture showed up negative. The primary care physician hence referred the individual back to the urologist. The urologist took a PSA test which registered a 6.4 (again, high).
A biopsy analyzes samples of the prostate. So, it is possible for a biopsy to miss the cancer. However, the urologist decided to rely on the preceding year's biopsy and to not perform another one as a follow up. Rather, the urologist did nothing to do anything more regarding the male's symptoms and elevated PSA.
A year later the patient went back to his primary care physician. His issues continued to include nocturia. On physical examination the doctor documented that the individual had a very enlarged prostate. Still, the physician did not do another a PSA or re-refer the patient to a urologist. Regular blood testing 4 months later showed that the male patient's PSA was at 7.4 Neither physician followed up in any way.
The following year the primary care physician documented that the PSA level was 9.8 Again, no follow up or referral to a urologist. Yet one more year and the individual is still complaining about nocturia. This time the PSA was 9.7 No follow up and no referral. On the fifth yea following the man's initial complaints of urinary problems the primary care physician once more recorded a significantly enlarged prostate gland and a PSA level that had now risen to 31. The doctor lastly refered the individual back to the urologist.
The urologist verified that the patient's prostate was enlarged and put the patient on 2 weeksto be followed by another PSA blood test. When the PSA test was done 2 weeks soon after it showed a level of 33. A biopsy followed which uncovered cancer every sample taken.
Testing afterwards showed that the patient had cancer metastasis to the lymph nodes, the liver and the bone. Even after a course of both hormone therapy and radiation therapy the individual passed away close to 18 months following his diagnosis. The law firm that represented his family recorded that a settlement for S1.0 Million was achieved in the case.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an attorney accepting cancer cases. You can learn about metastatic prostate cancer and other cancer matters including advanced breast cancer visit the websites
