Cancer Misdiagnosis

Bronx, Brooklyn, Long Island, Queens, Manhattan, New York City, NY

Cancer Malpractice Lawyers

When cancer is diagnosed in its late stages, effective treatment is extremely challenging and often brutal for patients to endure. The sad truth is that in many situations, cancer could or should have been diagnosed much earlier. Some patients inform their doctors about worrying symptoms early on but are misdiagnosed, or else not properly tested for the presence of cancer.

The Importance of Early Cancer Diagnosis

Diagnosed early on, cancer is localized and thus much easier to treat. Cancer patients who are treated in the early stages of the disease have higher survival rates. Late-stage cancer patients must endure a lower quality of life due to aggressive radiation therapy and chemotherapy, all of which may not affect their prognosis at all.

For example: breast cancer that is detected early, while it is still localized, has a five-year survival rate of 98%. Detected too late, the survival rate for breast cancer is only 23%. Similarly, the survival rate for colorectal cancer detected in its early stages is 91%, but drops to 11% for late-stage diagnosis.

Improper Screening Procedures

Because detecting cancer early is so essential to effective treatment, several methods for routine cancer screening have been established. Despite this, cancer still goes undiagnosed due to various errors on the part of medical professionals, including:

• Misreading test results
• Not reporting test results
• Not acting on test results
• Improper test procedures
• Lab mistakes
• Administering the wrong test

If a physician fails to perform a recommended test, or doesn’t follow up on suspicious test results, he or she may be guilty of committing a medical error, which would be grounds for a medical malpractice case.

Patient Neglect

Sometimes, patients will report troubling symptoms to their doctors – such as a persistent, painful cough, dramatic changes in digestive habits, rectal bleeding, or even a breast lump – only to have them dismissed or ignored by the doctor. He or she may not perform the proper tests to follow up on the possibility of cancer, or may not call patients back with test results. Many patients also have trouble simply finding time in their doctor’s busy schedule for a follow-up appointment. If the neglect of a physician or medical professional leads to late diagnosis or misdiagnosis of cancer, you may be entitled to compensation.

If you or someone you know has suffered because of a medical professional’s negligence, please contact the experienced cancer malpractice lawyers in New York at Silberstein, Awad & Miklos, PC today for a free consultation.

Silberstein, Awad & Miklos, P.C.
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