$600,000 Settlement When Doctor Did Not Tell Patient Tests Revealed Possibility Of Prostate Cancer

Male patients tend to have a scant understanding of prostate cancer, their own risk for the cancer, and how to determine whether they have prostate cancer. Many men have modest, if any, knowledge of the merit of testing for prostate cancer or of the recommendations for when to commence screening, how often to test, and how to interpret the test results. They believe that their doctor will do everything that is appropriate to diagnose any cancer early and cure them.

There are several different circumstances that might result in a delayed diagnosis. This article will consider the following pattern: the physician (1) actually screens the individual for prostate cancer by following the amount of PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) in his bloodstream, (2) learns that the individual has a high PSA level, however (3) does not tell the patient, fails to refer the patient to a specialist, and does not get a biopsy to find out if the elevated PSA from prostate cancer. Consider the following claim, for instance:

In this reported case a male patient discovered he had prostate cancer after he followed up when informed by his internist that he most likely had cancer. The problem in this case was that the physician did not tell the patient that he could have cancer until the third year of elevated PSA test results. The year prior the man's PSA level had gone up to 13.6. Two years prior to that it had been at 8.0 Throughout these years the doctor did nothing to rule out prostate cancer as the source of these high readings and did not inform the patient. By the time he was diagnosed he had metastatic prostate cancer and surgery was no longer among the treatment options. Treating physicians instead recommended radiation therapy and hormone therapy. Neither of these would eliminate the cancer but they might slow the cancer’s progress and additional spread. The law firm handling this matter reported that the case went to mediation and settled for $600,000.

But not following up after noting abnormal test results brings about a situation in which those patients who do actually have prostate cancer might not discover they have it until it has spread beyond the prostate, limiting the patient’s choices for treatment, and substantially reducing the chances that the patient will be able to survive the cancer.

At a minimum they should inform the patient that the results of the screening tests are abnormal and refer him to a urologist. In addition, the doctor can propose diagnostic testing, such as a biopsy.

As the above claim shows doctors sometimes comply with the guidelines in performing screening for prostate cancer yet when the test results are abnormal they fail to do anything about it.

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