These days, many types of cancers can be treated or well managed if a doctor diagnoses it early and the patient seeks the right medical care. A proper cancer diagnosis involves determining what the symptoms indicate, and doctors have the appropriate training and skills to arrive at a proper evaluation of the patient’s condition. However, a doctor’s failure to diagnose cancer accurately and timely can make the difference between the patient’s life and death.

If you suffered a cancer misdiagnosis, delayed misdiagnosis, or not diagnosed at all, you might have a reasonable basis for a medical malpractice case. Victims of medical malpractice are awarded financial compensation for the harm they suffered due to the misdiagnosis.

However, you must prove that the harm you suffered was due to the doctor’s negligence which is where a cancer misdiagnosis law firm comes in to help you determine if you have a case against cancer malpractice. The attorney assesses the case facts, medical records and evaluates the medical responsibilities of the health professional to determine if they acted negligently.

What is cancer misdiagnosis?

When patients develop symptoms they suspect might be cancer, they expect an accurate and timely diagnosis to seek treatment early enough and have the cancerous cells eradicated. However, sometimes doctors miss the early signs and misdiagnose cancer as another condition. By the time they get the diagnosis right, it might be too late to get the proper treatment or save the patient’s life. Common forms of cancer misdiagnosis include:

• Failure to diagnose may include failure to order the necessary tests depending on the patient’s reported pain and symptoms, not ordering a screen test, or misinterpreting the test results.
• Diagnosing the wrong type of cancer is where the doctor diagnoses a patient with a particular type of cancer when he/she suffers from a different cancer type.
• False-positive reporting of cancer occurs when a patient is diagnosed with cancer when actually they don’t have it and are suffering from a different type of condition.

Cancer diagnostic errors

In a medical malpractice lawsuit based on cancer misdiagnosis, the plaintiff must prove that another doctor of similar specialty and skills under the same circumstances would have correctly and timely diagnosed their condition or illness. Cancer diagnostic errors could be because of:

• The doctor failed to get the necessary tests or seek opinions from other specialists to investigate the diagnosis for that particular medical condition properly.
• The doctor, pathologist, or oncologist failed to include that particular concern in their differential diagnosis list while a reasonably competent and skillful doctor under a similar situation would have.

Common types of misdiagnosed cancers

• Pancreatic cancer.
• Colon cancer.
• Melanoma cancer.
• Cervical cancer.
• Breast cancer.
• Prostate cancer.
• Ovarian cancer.
• Endometrial cancer.

Cancer malpractice and negligence

Negligence is under medical malpractice, which occurs when a medical professional fails to offer a patient the industry’s accepted standard level of care and treatment. However, cancer negligence or malpractice can be complicated and difficult to prove without the assistance of a cancer malpractice attorney.

Juries determine the negligence or malpractice by comparing the actions of the said doctor with those of another doctor under similar circumstances with the same education and skills.

The takeaway

Despite your situation, you have the right to hire a cancer misdiagnosis lawyer to pursue your case.