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Missed/delayed diagnoses - cancer malpractice

Medical errors involving cancer cases are relatively common, whether missed or delayed diagnosis of the disease or, as in a recently publicized Philadelphia case, botched surgeries by doctors and their staffs. Such incidents of medical malpractice can lead to serious injury and death.

A missed or delayed diagnosis of cancer can lead to a spread of the cancer, causing disfiguring surgery, unnecessary chemotherapy and radiation therapy. One study estimated that 128,000 Americans annually are injured because of a cancer misdiagnosis, with many of them dying.

Other forms of medical malpractice also occur in cancer cases, such as the recent revelation that at least 92 surgical procedures involving prostate cancer -- known as brachytherapy -- were botched at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Philadelphia. (Read story.)

If you or a loved one were the victim of medical malpractice involving a cancer case, you may want to contact a cancer attorney for a free evaluation of your case.

The series of medical errors at the Philadelphia VA hospital, widely reported in June 2009, included a surgeon mistakenly implanting radioactive “seeds” not in cancerous prostates but in healthy organs, including patients’ bladders and rectums. In other cases the doses of radiation were either too high or too low.

A study reported in the online journal Cancer concluded that roughly 12 percent of cancer patients in the United States are initially misdiagnosed. It was this study that estimated that 128,000 people each year suffer some degree of "harm," ranging from having to undergo a second round of tests to consequences that are fatal.

Dr. Stephen S. Raab, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine who authored the study, said: "I want to make clear that the major consequence is not that patients unnecessarily have organs removed or have a false diagnosis of cancer, but rather that they have cancer and it is not diagnosed."

The study concluded that misdiagnoses were caused by improper blood and tissue sampling and inaccurate reading of laboratory test results. Breast and colon cancer are among the more common forms of cancer that go undetected because of error.

A later study found that women older than 70 are "under-diagnosed, under-staged, and under-treated" for cancer compared with younger women. Women in the older age group make up fully one-third of all breast cancer patients. (Read the article.)

Kline & Specter, P.C., a law firm with some 30 attorneys – several of them also highly skilled doctors – has broad experience and success in litigating cancer cases, winning substantial jury verdicts and settlements in Philadelphia and the surrounding suburban counties.

Breast Cancer. In one case tried by Tom Kline, a jury in Lehigh County awarded $33.1 million to a woman whose doctor and a company that provided mammography services failed to timely diagnose her breast cancer. She died as a result. (See the Welteroth Case.)

In a 2003 trial later featured on ABC’s Nightline, Kline won a $3 million verdict for the family of a woman, Dagmar Lackman, who died because of a delayed breast cancer diagnosis.

Colon Cancer. In a colon cancer case, the law firm won a verdict of $8.25 million in Delaware County Court for a man whose cancer was initially missed, leading to his death.

In another case, Kline & Specter reached a settlement on behalf of the family of Stephen Little, the former WBA super middleweight champion, who died of cancer after a misdiagnosis led to a 10-month delay in treating his colon cancer. Little, of Reading, married and the father of six, died at age 34.

Contact a cancer lawyer.

Click here to view News Articles about cancer cases handled by Kline & Specter attorneys.