Envision Being Diagnosed With Advanced Cancer And Your Doctor Did Not Inform You About Abnormal Test Results

Imagine you are a male and you see your physician for your yearly checkup. Imagine the doctor orders blood tests, including a PSA test which is used for the early diagnosis of prostate cancer. So far, so good. This is how to determine if a man without any symptoms of prostate cancer may in fact have it. Imagine the tests came back outside the normal range

Certain physicians argue that prostate cancer screening, specifically PSA testing, is of little or no value. These doctors hold that screening has little, if any, value. One factor, nevertheless, continues to be constant. If the result of a screening test is abnormal the patient should be informed of the results and either be referred to a specialist or be advised about the option for diagnostic testing, like a biopsy. Again, however, a number of physicians also take the position that, at least under certain instances, a male patient who is diagnosed with prostate cancer does not need to undergo treatment right away and simply should carefully monitor the cancer.

If the doctor 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 noted that the patient's prostate was enlarged or there was a nodule on the gland and the PSA test results indicated abnormally high levels of the antigen and the doctor failed to inform the patient about the abnormal results, the individual would likely assume that meant the results were all normal.

The lengthier the delay in actually performing tests that will diagnose the cancer the larger the likelihood that by the time it is finally diagnosed the cancer will have reached an advanced stage. This will considerably lessen treatment options, will eliminate the likelihood of a cure, and will shorten the patient's life. There is a group of lawsuits where the male patient was eventually diagnosed yet by that time the cancer was advanced and a cure was no longer plausible.

Screening tests could yield false positives. This means that a percentage of patients with abnormal screening results actually do not have cancer. However performing screening tests for cancer is meaningless without follow up as it gives the patient a false sense of security thinking that he has no cancer as the physician screened him and said nothing to him that the tests demonstrated the possibility of cancer. Physicians commonly concur the need for follow up if the results of screening tests come back as abnormal.

Article Source: http://www.free-article-info.com/ArticleDashboard

Joseph Hernandez is an attorney accepting medical malpractice cases. Find more information about metastatic prostate cancer and other cancer matters including metastasized breast cancer visit the websites

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5 

Not yet Rated