The Way Doctors Who Recommend Watchful Waiting May Risk A Medical Malpractice Lawsuit
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-12-25 19:40:39 | Word Count: 610
There are tests that enable the detection of certain types of cancers, including prostate cancer, before the patient shows symptoms. The idea is to diagnose the cancer early - before it is able to spread while treatment is likely to eliminate the cancer instead of waiting until the cancer advances and spreads at which point there is at this time no known cure. The initial test is the digital examination. During this examination the doctor uses a gloved finger to physically examine the prostate gland for any signs of enlargement, hardening, or the existence of growths, any of which could be a sign of cancer. The second is a blood test called the PSA test. An abnormally high result suggests the possibility of prostate cancer.
Raised PSA test results may, though, be caused by factors different from cancer, like inflammation of the prostate or infection. This type of elevated PSA readings are called "false positives." There are also potential dangers associated with biopsies, such as significant bleeding and infection. Given these two facts some doctors advocate that men follow a strategy of "watchful waiting." Under such a plan the doctor tracks the patient's raised PSA over a period of months or even years. They may additionally recommend starting treatments like medication for infection to see if the treatment lowers the PSA back to normal levels.
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One of the issues with this approach is that a physician may wait too long before advocating a biopsy. If waiting leads to the metastasis of the cancer beyond the prostate capsule then the man will no longer have treatment options that can eliminate and cure the cancer. For men whose cancer is detected while it is still contained inside the capsule, the likelihood is more than ninety percent that they will continue to be alive 5 years beyond diagnosis. The number is less for the more aggressive forms of prostate cancer. This percentage is referred to as the 5-year survival rate.
If the prostate cancer is not found until it has spread beyond the capsule, a patient has about a fifty percent chance that the cancer will progress. If the cancer metastaisizes to the bone or to distant organs by the time of diagnosis, the patient typically has just a two to three year life expectancy. Treatment options might include hormone therapy, radiation therapy, orchiectomy (taking out the testicles), and possibly chemotherapy. In time, treatment may cease to be effective and the cancer will again continue to advanced. At the point where treatment ceases to be effective, prostate cancer is fatal. This year, an estimated 90,000 men will lose their lives in the U.S. due to advanced prostate cancer.
What percentage of these 90,000 deaths will be because of a doctor advising the manhis patient to follow the "watchful waiting" method and then did nothing while the cancer spread? Perhaps we might never know how many of these deaths could have been prevented had the physician instead advised the patient to undergo a biopsy.
By taking a "watchful waiting" strategy and merely monitoring a male patient's elevated PSA, a physician places the man in danger of not doing anything about the cancer until it progresses to an advanced, possibly untreatable, stage. The physician may be liable under a medical malpractice claim.
Author Resource:-
Mr. Hernandez is an attorney accepting delayed diagnosis of cancer cases. For a free attorney consultation regarding prostate cancer and other cancer matters including colon cancer visit the websites
