Diagnosed With Metastatic Colon Cancer? Was The Delay Due To Actions Of Your Physician?
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-09-20 10:28:44 | Word Count: 622
Imagine that a patient who has complained of blood in the stool to their doctor and was told by the doctor that it was probably just hemorrhoids and there was nothing to be concerned about is later told he or she has cancer of the colon. He or she now has advanced colon cancer that has progressed to the lymph nodes or even to a different organ, for example the liver or the lungs. What makes this happen and what alternatives does the patient and his or her family have if it does?
The first thing to note is that most physicians acknowledge that when a person presents with rectal bleeding or blood in the stool a colonoscopy should be conducted in order to determine the cause of the blood. The colonoscopy helps establish whether the blood is from colon cancer or something else like hemorrhoids. But merely assuming that the blood is the result of hemorrhoids risks missing a cancer.
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Colon cancer is a disease that progresses over time. As it advances it becomes harder to treat effectively. For instance, when the disease is in stage 1 or stage 2, it is still contained inside the wall of the colon. Treatment for these stages ordinarily involves surgery to take out the tumor and surrounding areas of the colon. Chemotherapy is often not part of the treatment of stage 1 and stage 2 unless it might be given to someone who is young as a precautionary treatment. With surgery, someone with stage 1 or stage 2 has an excellent likelihood of outliving the disease for at least 5 years after diagnosis. The relative 5-year survival rate is over 90% for stage 1 and 73% for stage 2.
By the time the cancer progresses to stage 3, it has spread outside the colon. At this stage treatment calls for both surgery and chemotherapy (perhaps with additional drugs as well). The relative 5-year survival rate for stage 3 is 53%. If it progress to stage 4, the relative 5-year survival rate is lowered to approximately 8%. Treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and other medications may or may not still be effective. Once treatment ceases to be effective, the disease is fatal. Approximately 48,000 people will die from colon cancer this year alone.
It is thus critical that the cancer be diagnosed early. Regrettably, all too frequently doctors simply assume that blood in the stool or rectal bleeding is the result of hemorrhoids, even after multiple reports by the patient. Instead of referring the individual to a specialist or performing tests, such as a colonoscopy, to rule out the posibility of cancer, they convey to the individual that there is nothing to worry about.
In the event the person did have cancer and it is not diagnosed until later, it could advance to a stage 3 or a stage 4 by the time of diagnosis. Now, it may be much more advanced than when the patient originally reported rectal bleeding or blood in the stool. As a result, the patient now has a much lessened possibility of surviving. In such situations, the failure on the part of a doctor to correctly rule out cancer at the time of the patient’s complaints might amount to a departure from the accepted standard of medical care resulting in a medical malpractice claim.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting medical malpractice cases. You can learn more about
advanced colon cancer and other cancer cases including
breastcancer visit the website
