Man Discovers He Has Advanced Prostate Cancer After Doctor Fails to Order Follow Up Biopsy
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-08-25 11:16:02 | Word Count: 665
Prostate cancer is a frightening disease. Even if not perfect doctors use diagnostics tests to doctors to determine whether a patient has the cancer. But due to the likelihood of false negatives (a negative test outcome despite the fact that the patient in reality has cancer) physicians should follow up and repeat tests as appropriate if patient symptoms and screening tests continue to suggest the possibility of cancer. The failure to do so might reslt in a malpractice claim.
In one reported lawsuit a man told his family doctor that he was suffering from urinary frequency and burning. The physician began the man on antibiotics and refered him to a urologist. The urologist did a cystoscopy which showed that the individual had an enlarged prostate. The urologist also took a PSA blood test which registered a 16.3 (anything over a 4.0 is normally accepted as elevated). Because of that the urologist took a biopsy two months later. The biopsy was interpreted by a pathologist as benign.
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The following year the individual went back to the urologist. This time the PSA blood test was a 2.9 (generally regarded as normal). The urologist diagnosed the patient with BPH (a noncancerous enlargement of the prostate). Three months later the man saw the PCP with symptoms of fever and nocturia (having to urinate over the night). The physician commenced him on a second round of antibiotics. A follow up urine culture showed up negative. The primary care physician thus referred the patient back to the urologist. The urologist took a PSA test which came back a 6.4 (again, high).
A biopsy examines portions of the prostate. Consequently, a biopsy could miss the cancer. But, the urologist chose to use the preceding year's biopsy and to not perform another one as a follow up. Instead, the urologist did nothing to do anything further concerning the patient's symptoms and high PSA. A year later the patient returned to his primary care physician. His issues including nocturia persisted. On physical examination the doctor documented that the man had a markedly enlarged prostate. Still, the physician did not do another a PSA or re-refer the man to a urologist. Routine blood testing four months afterwards revealed that the person's PSA was at 7.4 Neither doctor did anything to follow up.
One more year goes by when the family doctor documented that the PSA level was 9.8 Once more, no follow up or referral to a urologist. Still one more year and the man continues to have problems with nocturia. Now the PSA was 9.7 No follow up and no referral. On the fifth yea following the person's initial complaints of urinary problems the primary care physician again recorded a substantially enlarged prostate gland and a PSA level that had reached a 31. The doctor at last refered the patient back to the urologist.
The urologist verified that the patient's prostate was enlarged and placed the patient on antibiotics for (two weeksto be followed by one more PSA blood test. After the PSA test was done 2 weeks soon after it registered a level of 33. A biopsy was then finally done which uncovered cancer in all 6 of the samples.
Testing subsequently showed that the man had cancer metastasis to the lymph nodes, the liver and the bone. Even with a course of both hormone therapy and radiation therapy the man passed away approximately eighteen months following his diagnosis. The law firm that handled this matter announced that a settlement in the amount of S1.0 Million was reached in the case.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an attorney accepting medical malpractice cases. You can learn about advanced prostate cancer and other cancer matters including breastcancer visit the websites
