The Way Errors By Your Physician Might Lead to A Delay In The Diagnosis Of Your Breast Cancer
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-11-08 17:36:52 | Word Count: 643
There are two mistakes that physicians are most likely to make that might delay the diagnosis of a female patient's breast cancer - (1) not performing any diagnostic testing to rule out cancer when a lump is felt in the breast and (2) misinterpreting a mammogram. Should a doctor make either of these mistakes and thus delays the detection of the cancer until it spreads, she may have a lawsuit for medical malpractice. The first most common error made by doctors is not performing any diagnostic testing when a female patient informs the doctor that she noticed a lump during a self-conducted breast examination or the doctor finds the mass while performing a screening clinical breast examination. Some doctors will assure the female patient she has nothing more than a noncancerous cyst, particularly when the patient is younger than forty and has no family history of breast cancer.
But, while the majority of new incidents of breast cancer happen in women older than fifty, younger women can, and are, diagnosed with breast cancer regularly. Further, a physician cannot determine, based on a clinical breast examination, if a mass in the breast is a benign cyst or is a cancerous mass. Because of this , a doctor ought to perform diagnostic testing so as to establish whether the mass is cancerous. Among the tests that can be ordered are a mammogram, a biopsy or an aspiration. In case the patient does indeed have have breast cancer, the failure to follow up with diagnostic testing may lead to the metastasis of the cancer.
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The second most likely error made by doctors is to misread a mammogram. Mammograms are used to visualize structures in the breast that could be cancerous. The mammogram makes images of the inside of the breast by using low dose x-rays of the woman's compressed breast. The ensuing images are then examined by doctors for the existence of any structures or changes that could be cancerous. But, doctors sometimes overlook what is basically in front of their eyes. Sometimes physicians miss an abnormal structure or change that shows up in the mammogram. Other times, doctors improperly diagnose an abnormality as not cancerous without recommending any diagnostic examination like a biopsy to exclude the possibility of cancer.
By making either error a physician might cause a delay in the diagnosis of the patient's breast cancer. The longer the detection of breast cancer is delayed, the more likely it is that the cancer will spread and reach an advanced stage. When the cancer spreads, the treatment possibilities for the woman are more limited. Furthermore, the woman's 5-year survival rate, the probability that she will be alive at least five years after her diagnosis, even with treatment, decreases significantly.
By rhe time the cancer advances to the third stage, the survival rate drops to fifty-five percent and by the fourth stage it is only roughly twenty percent. Had the cancer been detected early, the 5-year survival rate would have been over eighty percent, perhaps even over ninety five percent if it had been diagnosed early enough.
Medical errors can have tragic effects. This is particularly true for individuals who have cancer. Any hold up to the detection of the cancer might end in the need for a mastectomy, limited treatment options, and under certain circumstances, might be even lead to the death of the individual. When this happens, medical mistakes like the ones discussed in this article may amount to medical malpractice.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an attorney accepting medical malpractice cases. Learn about breast cancer metastasis and other cancer matters including prostate cancer visit the websites
