Cancer is a major global cause of disease and death in the world. Unfortunately, with the growing lifespan of human beings, it is also a growing cause of disease. The American Cancer Society captures the ever-increasing rates of cancer by its estimates; there are 1.7 million new cancer cases diagnosed in the United States each year. This staggering statistic is made grimmer because although cancer is often misunderstood to be one single disease, it is a complex disease phenomenon with multiple causes that manifest as different disease processes in various body sites. Many of these cancers are often to occur more common, whereas some of them can be rare. Essentially cancer is a category of many different, often poorly understood diseases. 

Medical and life science research allows scientists to better understand these different types of cancers and enable their findings to innovate new diagnostic and cancer treatments. Despite the improvement in our understanding of cancer, how to diagnose and treat it, medical professionals still rely on prevention, early detection, and limited types of available therapies to improve a patient’s chances of survival from cancer. 

One of the most crucial first steps in treating cancer is an accurate and timely diagnosis of the disease. This is important because patients have the best chance of receiving the right treatment and surviving if the condition is caught early. The extent of disease in cancer is measured in “Stages.” The higher the stage (with Stage 4 being the highest), the less chance of survival for a patient. Unfortunately, misdiagnosis and delay in establishing a cancer diagnosis of cancer are common. It is estimated that approximately 10-20 percent of all cancer cases are misdiagnosed. This often means that patients are not able to receive the care they need to treat cancer. During this period, cancer can often become more aggressive over time, and in a worst-case scenario, even spread to other parts of the body. This type of medical error can often be prevented and can mean the difference between life and death for a patient. 

Who is responsible for diagnosing and treating cancer? 

Cancer is diagnosed and treated by teams of healthcare professionals who work collaboratively to coordinate the different types of care that a patient receives for their cancer diagnosis and any other medical issues that a patient with cancer may experience. Oncologists specialize in cancer treatment and are usually responsible for leading the diagnosis and treatment of patients with cancer. 

How is cancer diagnosed?

Since cancer is a group of many complex diseases present in different ways, it is not a straightforward process to diagnose cancer. Generally, physicians rely on screening tests for various cancerous diseases, a detailed medical history, physical examination, diagnostic lab, imaging tests, and biopsies to confirm a cancer diagnosis and its stage of the disease. Many different steps must happen in a sequence for an accurate cancer diagnosis to be made. For patients that are misdiagnosed, this can often mean that there can be many different care providers, including Primary care physicians, oncologists, among others, that can result in a cancer misdiagnosis. The most important and often the final step in concluding a cancer diagnosis results from the biopsy performed by a pathologist on tumor tissue. 

What are the different types of Cancer Misdiagnosis?

A useful way to think about Cancer Misdiagnosis is to think of it as two different types of the phenomenon: a missed diagnosis of cancer in which the disease is not even detected or a delayed cancer diagnosis. The delayed diagnosis of cancer can often mean that the initial disease process diagnosis was wrong. This can have severe consequences from a treatment perspective since the right type of treatment is delayed or not provided in time. The different types of cancer misdiagnosis include the following:

  1. Wrong diagnosis
  2. Misclassified diagnosis
  3. No diagnosis established wrongfully

Cancer misdiagnoses are the result of a systematic failure and lack of knowledge of cancer in many cases. The true extent of cancer misdiagnosis often goes unnoticed each year. When healthcare providers cause a case of cancer misdiagnosis, there can be many reasons behind this type of failure. These causes can include the following examples:

  1. Failure to perform regular and timely screenings for certain common cancer types such as lung, breast, colon, and prostate cancer.
  2. Failure to order the right lab and imaging tests to establish a cancer diagnosis.
  3. Communication failure by different members of a healthcare team.
  4. Failure to follow up by treating physician with patient
  5. Failure to identify common symptoms of disease in cancer patients
  6. Failure to identify complications of illness or treatment in time.

In most cases, there are more than one errors that lead to a cancer misdiagnosis.

What is “Standard of Care”?

It is essential first to understand that the Standard of Care is a legal and not a medical term. It refers to the degree of care expected and the average healthcare provider’s skill for providing care for each specific medical case. Essentially it means that all physicians with a certain level of training are expected to offer a similar type of care for a clinical scenario. Medical malpractice occurs when a health care provider fails to provide the Standard of care in a specific medical scenario for a patient. This form of medical negligence in which those providing care does not follow the Standard of care can often result in preventable harm, injury, and in extreme cases, death of the patients. 

In a medical malpractice lawsuit that is filled in court over a healthcare provider’s act or even a failure to act, the main question assessed by the legal teams is if there was medical negligence. In most cases, medical negligence is determined by evaluating if the healthcare provider provided healthcare services that meet each patient’s Standard of care. 

The Standard of care is different for different types of cancers. It is also continually evolving with new ways to diagnose and treat cancer. Since the most crucial step to diagnose a type of cancer is often the biopsy of tissue by a pathologist to establish a final diagnosis, missed or delayed diagnosis can directly result from a medical error by pathologists.       

What is the first step to take for victims of medical malpractice resulting from cancer misdiagnosis?

The first step to take by patients is to contact a professional legal team experienced in medical malpractice and cancer misdiagnosis cases. It is essential to take this first step as soon as you suspect that you or a family member might have been misdiagnosed. This is because the process can be detail-oriented and time-consuming. But more importantly, the whole process is time sensitive due to the Statute of limitations. This legal term refers to the deadline before a lawsuit must be filed by a patient against a healthcare provider or entity. This deadline is different for each State. After the deadline has passed, patients are permanently barred from suing for medical malpractice. When we talk about cancer misdiagnosis or a missed diagnosis, it can be catastrophic for patients with cancer who are already running out of time to get the timely care they need before the disease proceeds to more advanced and less treatable disease stages. 

It is always the patient’s decision to pursue the truth about their cancer misdiagnosis through the legal system. The legal teams representing patients in the medical malpractice lawsuit that the healthcare providers responsible for diagnosis and treatment did not follow the Standard of care, resulting in medical errors that lead to harm. A successful medical malpractice claim can result in patients receiving compensation for the physical, mental, social, and financial damage caused by a cancer misdiagnosis. Although there can not be any proper compensation for a patient’s time lost, the monetary compensation can often offset some of the damage brought by a cancer misdiagnosis. These cases are also responsible for creating the importance of accurately diagnosing and treating cancer to prevent future medical malpractice.

With our improved understanding of cancer and our technology to accurately diagnose different types of cancers, healthcare providers have increased the amount of responsibility to provide the Standard of care when diagnosing and treating cancer. This has resulted in cancer misdiagnosis becoming one of the leading causes of medical malpractice lawsuits.

If you or your family members suspect that you may have been the victims of medical negligence in the form of a cancer misdiagnosis, it is a good idea to take the first step of contacting a legal professional as soon as possible to assess your situation, assist you with gathering the needed information that may be required in court, and help you explore your legal options if necessary.