Doctor - Make Sure You Conduct Appropriate Tests If Female Has A Lump In Her Breast Or You Might Be Liable For Medical Malpractice
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-12-06 17:36:26 | Word Count: 812
Women have faith that their physicians will be aware of the difference between a substantial health problem and something that fails to present any danger to their health. One area where is this especially true is with breast cancer. Women trust in doctors to do all proper tests whether it be a physical examination of the breasts, a mammogram, an aspiration or a biopsy to find any cancer that may be present as early as possible. The presence of a lump in a breast heightens worry immediately. And here is where the doctor can take the steps necessary to make a proper diagnosis. Most doctors acknowledge that the standard of care calls for the doctor to order tests to discover whether that lump is cancerous. The reason most physicians concur that this is the appropriate plan of action is due to the fact that it is not possible to make that determination based only doing a physical examination (even if taken together with other variables like the woman's age and family history).
Roughly some eighty percent of breast related issues are from benign causes. Further, most new breast cancer diagnosis arise in women over 50 years of age. It is thus not surprising that some doctors will diagnose a lump found in the breast, particularly in a woman who is not yet fifty, as due to a cyst and not due to breast cancer. The chances are in favor of such a diagnosis.
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Unfortunately, this is not the end of the story. If breast cancer is diagnosed while in its less early stages (for example, stage 0, stage I or stage II), the 5-year survival rate is normally over eighty percent. The five-year survival rate is a a number used by cancer specialists to discern the fraction of patients who outlive the cancer for beyond 5 years following diagnosis. Thus, a 5-year survival rate above eighty percent means that, statistically, more than 80 out of every 100 patients with a less advanced stage breast cancer will, with appropriate treatment, survive the disease for at least five years following detection.
When breast cancer metastasizes prior to diagnosis a female patient's chances of outliving the cancer for mroe than five years is significantly reduced. By the time the cancer reaches stage 3, her chances are reduced to about fifty-four percent. If the cancer reaches stage 4, those chances drop to about twenty percent. Thus, eighty percent or greater with early diagnosis versus fifty-four percent or lower with delayed detection.
It is predicted that one in eight women will have breast cancer in the course of their lifetime. It is the 2nd prevalent cancer in females. In excess of one hundred ninety thousand women are predicted to be newly diagnosed with invasive breast cancer this year. Furthermore over forty nine thousand women are predicted to die of breast cancer this year. Since women whose breast cancer is detected and treated while still in the early stages have a better than eighty percent expectation of surviving the cancer for over 5 years after diagnosis, a question that follows is what percentage of those forty thousand or more females who will die of from advanced breast cancer this year might otherwise survive if their cancer had been no delay in diagnosing their cancer.
By conducting a clinical breast examination a physician just cannot accurately distinguish between a benign cyst and a cancerous growth. Given this a doctor should generally suggest that diagnostic testing be done instantly if a lump is discovered in a woman's breast. Among the tests can should be performed are an imaging study such as a mammogram or an ultrasound, or a sampling, such as by biopsy or aspiration. Each test can fail to diagnose a cancer thus it might be important to do more than one test before cancer can be eliminated as the cause of the lump.
In cases where a doctor diagnoses a mass in the breast of a female patient as nothing more than a benign fibroid cyst based only on a clinical breast examination, that doctor puts the woman in danger of not finding out she has breast cancer until it metastasizes. Not performing appropriate diagnostic testing, including an imaging study such as a mammogram or ultrasound, or a sampling, such as a biopsy or aspiration, may amount to a departure from the accepted standard of medical care and might lead to a medical malpractice claim.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an attorney accepting cancer cases. To learn about breast cancer metastasis as well as colon cancer metastasis and other cancer matters including visit the websites
