Is diagnosing the wrong cancer malpractice?

When a health care provider fails to provide a timely and accurate diagnosis, he or she is guilty of medical negligence which is a major component of medical malpractice. Early cancer detection is vital in increasing a patient's chance to survive. Therefore, a patient's health can be adversely affected when a doctor fails to diagnose correctly. Deaths due to misdiagnosed or undiagnosed cancer provide the basis for an increasing number of wrongful death actions.

In the case of cancer, the most common instances of medical negligence include:

• Failure to test when a patient exhibits indicative signs and symptoms
• Misread test results
• Failure to perform a biopsy when results of physical exam are abnormal
• Failure to refer an oncologist when necessary
• Failure to recommend appropriate treatment options

Misdiagnosis of cancer are often attributed to the following:

• A non-cancerous (or benign) tumor is identified as malignant (cancerous)
• A cancerous lesion is missed in the biopsy procedure
• A malignant mass is diagnosed as benign
• Failure to refer a patient to a specialist for further testing
• A malignant tumor is misclassified as to type or misgraded as to aggressiveness
• Specimens are mishandled by pathology, or improperly read or interpreted
• Failure to follow up with a patient if cancer should have been suspected
• Failure to adequately screen for increased risk patients
• Recommending an inappropriate medical testing procedure
• Failure to understand or notice the nature of a patient’s complaints

If your doctor diagnosed your cancer incorrectly, or committed other acts of medical negligence, and you have been harmed because of it, you may bring a claim for medical malpractice to recover damages. Consult with a lawyer to determine whether you have a case to bring a wrong cancer diagnosis lawsuit.