Imagine that your doctor physically examines your prostate gland for any signs of possible cancer including an enlargement or a hardening of the prostate and if there are any growths present on the gland. Imagine the doctor orders blood tests, including a PSA test for the early detection of prostate cancer. So far, so good. This is the way to check whether a man without any symptoms of prostate cancer may in fact have it. Imagine the results actually were abnormal.
However, there remains debate amid some physicians over the way to screen asymptomatic male patients for prostate cancer or whether to screen at all. They argue that screening has little, if any, value. If of a screening test is abnormal the man should be told of the results and either be referred to a specialist or be advised about the option for diagnostic testing, for example a biopsy. Once more, however, a number of physicians also believe that, at least under certain situations, a male patient diagnosed with prostate cancer does not need to treat it immediately and just has to carefully monitor the cancer.
If the physician fails to give the patient the option to undergo screening or does not tell the patient about the abnormal test results the patient's prostate cancer may spread and metastasize without the man even knowing he may have cancer. Unfortunately, if a doctor detected that the patient's prostate was enlarged or there was a nodule on the gland and the PSA test results suggested high levels of the antigen and the physician did not tell the man about the abnormal results, the individual would probably assume that meant there was no need to follow up. Should the man really have cancer, not telling him that he may have cancer will lead to a delay in his diagnosis.
A delay could, in turn, allow the cancer to metastasize. Once a cancer metastasizes treatment can at best slow down the progression of the cancer and lessen the effects (like pain) of the cancer. There is a type of lawsuits where the male patient was eventually diagnosed but by that time the cancer has spread and a cure was no longer a possibility.
Screening tests could yield false positives. This means that some patients with abnormal screening results actually do not have cancer. Yet doing screening tests for cancer is meaningless if there is no follow up as it gives the patient a false sense of security believing he has no cancer as the physician tested him and did not advise him that the screening tests revealed he might have cancer. Physicians commonly acknowledge that there is a need for follow up if the results of screening tests come back as abnormal.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting catastrophic injury and medical malpractice cases. To learn more about metastatic prostate cancer claims and how an attorney who has experience with cancer malpractice cases can help you visit the website.
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