What Happens When Physcians Do Not Test African-American Men For Prostate Cancer In A Timely Fashion
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-11-03 20:54:44 | Word Count: 661
In what follows we consider two lawsuits that give us some clues about the significance of screening men for prostate cancer. Although there has been a certain amount of debate recently about the worth of testing male patients for prostate cancer (in particular with the PSA screening test) certain facts continue to be undisputable. To begin with, prostate cancer leads to an increasing PSA level. Second, men of African-American descent have a greater likelihood of having prostate cancer prior to metastasis. Also, when prostate cancer is diagnosed early, there is a very high cure rate. Fourth, if it is not detected until after it has reached an advanced stage, there is at this time no known cure. Finally, normally physicians are in agreement that at the minimum a physician should have a conversation with men of a particular age concerning testing for prostate cancer and that dialogue and any screening should happen at an earlier age for men of African-American descent.
In one medical malpractice lawsuit, a man of African-American heritage had been treating with his primary care physician for different issues, in particular prostate related issues. Yet, the doctor never correctly do screening during the time the man was asymptomatic or diagnostic testing to eliminate the chance of prostate cancer during the times the individual had prostate related concerns. After the patient turned fifty years old, he read an article which described the value of cancer testing and requested the screening. The tests detected that he had prostate cancer which had already spread. The law firm that handled this lawsuit published that it was settled for the sum of three quarter of a million dollars.
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Consider the other published case of a forty one year-old African-American man who had been involved in an ad campaign directed at increasing awareness over the risk of prostate cancer in middle-aged males of African-American descent requested that his doctor test him for the cancer. The doctor performed a digital examination and identified no abnormalities. The physician ordered blood tests for the patient but did not get a PSA test The man thought a PSA test was ordered and simply assumed the results were normal given that he did not hear anything more about it. The patient was seen again by the same physician two years later at which point the doctor did not conduct a physical examination of the prostate and just as before did not order a PSA test.
Subsequently that year the man saw another physician in the same practice. This time the doctor not only performed a digital examination but additionally ordered a PSA test. The outcome - the patient, who was about to turn forty five, had stage 4 prostate cancer which had reached the bone. The patient filed a lawsuit against the physician who had failed to get the PSA testing. The law firm that represented the patient documented that the case was settled pending an appeal of a $2,750,000 jury verdict.
An important issue from these cases is that, regardless of any discussion concerning the advantages of testing male patients for prostate cancer, not doing so might let enough time pass that there will be a spread of the disease and in time, the patient's death : a death that may have be prevented. If you or a member of your family was not diagnosed until the cancer of the prostate had spread because the doctor never informed the patient concerning testing methods or otherwise caused a delay in the detection or treatment of the cancer, you ought to contact an attorney immediately.
Author Resource:-
Mr. Hernandez is an attorney accepting medical malpractice cases. To find out more prostate cancer and other cancer matters including metastatic colon cancer visit the websites
