Person With Metastatic Colon Cancer After No Screening By Doctor May Have A Medical Malpractice Claim
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-08-16 22:55:35 | Word Count: 786
The second greatest number of cancer deaths is from colon cancer.. Each year, around forty eight thousand men and women will pass away because of colon cancer. A large number of these fatalities would be avoided with early diagnosis and treatment by standard colon cancer testing in advance of when symtoms develop.
When the disease is located as a small polyp while undergoing a routine screening procedure, like a colonoscopy, the polyp can usually be taken out during the colonoscopy without the requirement for the surgical removal of any segment of the colon. In the event the polyp grows into a tumor and reaches Stage 1 or Stage 2, the tumor and a part of the colon on each side of the tumore is surgical removed. The relative 5-year survival rate is over ninety percent for Stage 1 and seventy three percent for Stage 2.
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By the point the disease reaches a Stage III, a colon resection is not enough. The patient will, in addition, need to have chemotherapy. The relative 5-year survival rate falls to fifty three percent, depending on such variables as the number of lymph nodes that have cancer.
Once the colon cancer metastasizes, treatment may call for the use of chemotherapy and perhaps additional drugs as well as surgery on multiple organs. In case the dimensions and quantity of tumors in other organs (for example, the liver and lungs) are sufficiently few, surgery to get rid of the cancer from those other organs might be the primary treatment, followed by chemotherapy. Sometimes the size or number of tumors in the other organs takes away the choice of surgery as part of the treatment.
If chemotherapy and additional drugs can reduce the number and dimensions of these tumors, surgery might at that point become a viable follow up treatment. Otherwise, chemotherapy and different drugs (possibly through clinical trials) might temporarily stop or lessen the ongoing progression of the cancer. The relative 5-year survival rate is reduced to around 8%.
As the relative 5-year survival rates indicate, the time frame in which the colon cancer is detected and treated results in a dramatic difference. If diagnosed and treated early, the person has an excellent chance of outliving the cancer. When detection and treatment is delayed, the chances start shifting against the person so that by the time the colon cancer progresses to the lymph nodes, the percentage is nearly even. Further the chances decrease greatly when the colon cancer gets to Stage 4.
Yet, all too often doctors fail to advise routine cancer screening to men and women who are asymptomatic. By the time the cancer is ultimately found - often because the tumor has become so large that it is causing blockage, because the person is losing blood internally and that condition is worsening, or because the person begins to detect other symptoms - the colon cancer is a Stage 3 or even a Stage 4. The patient now faces a very different prognosis than he or she would have if the cancer had been detected early through standard screening.
Attorneys who handle cancer cases often refer to this as a "loss of chance" of a better recovery. In other words, because the doctor did not advisev that the patient have a routine screening test, the cancer is now much more advanced and the patient faces a much reduced chance of outliving the cancer. The failure of a physician to recommend the patient have screening options for colon cancer might constitute medical malpractice.
Contact an attorney immediately should you feel your colon cancer was not diagnosed until it had already reached an advanced stage as a consequence of a physician's not suggesting routine colon cancer screening. This article is for general informational uses only and should not be considered legal (or medical) advice. For any health issues your should contact a physician. If you believe you might have a medical malpractice case consult with an attorney right away. A competent lawyer experienced in handling cancer lawsuits can assist determine if you have a claim for a delayed diagnosis colon cancer from a failure on the part of a physician to recommend colon cancer screening. There is a time limit in cases like these so do not wait to call an attorney.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting medical malpractice cases. You can learn more about coloncancer and other cancer cases including metastatic prostate cancerprostatecancer visit the website
