How Medical Malpractice Claim May Result From Misdiagnosing A Lump In A Woman's Breast As Only A Cyst

Women trust that their doctors will be aware of the difference between a serious health concern and something that does not present any danger to their health. One area where is this especially true is with breast cancer. Women count on physicians to do every appropriate tests to diagnose any cancer that may exist in the earliest stage achievable. The existence of a lump in a breast raises worry right away. This is where the doctor can do the right thing or the wrong thing. In general, physicians agree that the right thing is to perform tests to figure out if that lump is cancerous. The reason most doctors acknowledge that this is the right course of action is due to the fact that a doctor cannot ascertain if the lump is cancerous or benign after only doing a physical examination.

Approximately some 80% of breast related issues are not the consequence of breast cancer. Moreover, most new breast cancer diagnosis happen in women who are older than fifty. It is therefore not surprising that a number of doctors will conclude that an abnormal finding from a clinical breast examination, particularly with a younger patient, as being only a cyst and not due to breast cancer. The statistics are in favor of such a diagnosis.

However, this is not the end of the story. In case breast cancer is found before it can reach a late stage (for example, stage 0, stage I or stage II), the five-year survival rate is usually above eighty percent. The five-year survival rate is a statistical measure used by cancer specialists to identify the fraction of patients who survive the cancer for a minimum 5 years following diagnosis. Thus, a 5-year survival rate above 80% means that, statistically, over 80 out of every 100 patients with a less advanced stage breast cancer will, with proper treatment, survive the disease for at least 5 years following diagnosis.

If the breast cancer is not detected until it gets to a stage III (typically regarding bigger cancerous masses in the breast or a spread of the cancer to lymph nodes), the 5-year survival rate falls to approximately 54%. With regard to stage IV (usually associated with a cancerous mass that is bigger that five cm or the spread of the cancer to the bone or distant organs), the five-year survival rate is around 20%.

It is expected that one in eight women will have breast cancer in the course of their lifetime. Cancer of the breast is the second most frequently diagnosed cancer in females. More than one hundred ninety thousand females are expected to be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer this year. And over forty nine thousand women are predicted to pass away of breast cancer this year. Considering the fact that women whose breast cancer is detected and treated while still in the early stages have a better than eighty percent likelihood of surviving the cancer for over 5 years subsequent to diagnosis, a question that should be asked is what percentage of those forty thousand or more females who will die of this disease this year might instead continue leading their lives if their cancer had been no delay in diagnosing their cancer.

The problem is that a number of doctors operate as if either that they can figure out whether a lump in a female's breast is cancerous or benign just by manual examination or that a woman under 50 with no family history of breast cancer is so unlikely to have breast cancer that it is not necessary to order any diagnostic tests to rule out cancer if she had a mass in her breast. Because most doctors would acknowledge that discovering a mass in a female's breast ought to be followed by diagnostic testing, such as an untrasound, mammogram, aspiration or biopsy

When a doctor diagnoses a lump in a woman's breast as only a benign cyst based only on a clinical breast examination, that physician puts the woman in danger of not learning she has breast cancer until it progresses to an advanced, possibly untreatable, stage. Not performing appropriate diagnostic testing, like an imaging study such as a mammogram or ultrasound, or a sampling, such as a biopsy or aspiration, may amount to a departure from the accepted standard of medical care and may result in a malpractice case.

By: J. Hernandez

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Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting medical malpractice cases and wrongful death cases. You can learn more about cases involving metastatic breast cancer and other cancer matters including colon cancer by visiting the websites