Men are likely to possess a scant awareness of prostate cancer, their own chances for the cancer, and the methods available for detecting whether they have prostate cancer. Many men have limited, if any, knowledge of the worth of testing for prostate cancer or of the guidelines for when to commence screening, how frequently to test, and the meaning of screening test results. However, far too often, physicians diagnose the cancer only after it is past the early stages as a consequence of a lack of screening.
There are several various circumstances that might result in a delayed diagnosis. A common type of medical mistake that is at the root of these cases takes place when the male patient's family doctor (1) orders a PSA blood test, (2) finds that the man has a high PSA level, however (3) fails to inform the patient, fails to refer the patient to a urologist, and fails to order a biopsy to find out if the elevated PSA is because of prostate cancer. Consider the following case, for example:
In this reported case a man found out he had prostate cancer after he followed up when advised by his internist that he probably had cancer. The issue in this case was that the doctor did not tell the patient that he could have cancer until the third year of raised PSA test results. The year before the patient's PSA level had gone up to 13.6. Two years prior to that it had been at 8.0 During these years the internist took no action to rule out prostate cancer as the cause of these high readings and did not tell the patient. Further testing uncovered that at this point he had advanced prostate cancer. A prostatectomy was no longer an option. Rather the patient underwent radiation therapy and hormone therapy in an attempt to delay the further progression of the cancer. The law firm that handled this matter reported that they took the case to mediation where they achieved a settlement of $600,000.
If they do not do anything in the presence of abnormal test results and the patient later finds out that he had prostate cancer and that the delay lead to it growing outside the prostate gland thereby restricting treatment options and decreasing his chances of surviving the cancer, the individual may have a lawsuit for medical malpractice against the physician.
This claim illustrates a sort of mistake that can result in the delayed diagnosis of a patient's prostate cancer. It arises when the physician actually follows the guidelines and screens male patients for prostate cancer however does not follow through when the test results are abnormal.
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