Despite the grim public perception, prostate cancer is highly treatable when detected early. However, not all prostate cancers are detected early.
When a medical professional neglects to order necessary testing, misreads lab findings, or ignores complained-of symptoms, the disease can progress and narrow available in treatment options.
If your prostate cancer diagnosis was delayed due to a practitioner’s failure to follow established medical protocols, you may have a Philly cancer misdiagnosis claim.
Why Prostate Cancer Goes Undetected
A delayed cancer diagnosis rarely traces back to one decision or a single moment in time. Instead, it typically results from a failure in the screening and diagnostic follow-up process.
Common reasons for missing a diagnosis include:
- Failing to order blood tests for patients with relevant risk factors or symptoms
- Misinterpreting elevated test levels as non-cancerous without conducting additional testing
- Declining to act on abnormal findings during a digital rectal exam
- Misreading biopsy slides and incorrectly labeling malignant cells as benign
- Failing to refer the patient to a specialist
Any of these failures can delay intervention long enough for the condition to advance into a severe illness.
Proving Medical Negligence in a Prostate Cancer Case
Delayed diagnosis can be a form of medical malpractice. To succeed in a delayed diagnosis lawsuit, you must demonstrate that a reasonably competent healthcare provider would have identified the cancer sooner and that this delay directly caused you harm. For instance, you may show that the delay allowed the malignancy to spread, required more invasive treatments, or lowered your survival odds.
Your Philadelphia medical malpractice claim will require supporting testimony from qualified medical experts, such as oncologists or urologists, who can establish how earlier detection would have altered the trajectory of your care and improved your prognosis. Under Pennsylvania law, you must consult with an expert before you even file a lawsuit (your attorney coordinates this analysis on your behalf).
What Compensation Can You Recover for a Missed Prostate Cancer Diagnosis?
Pennsylvania does not impose caps on economic or non-economic damages in medical malpractice actions. Therefore, your financial award can fully address the financial and personal losses you’ve suffered due to delayed care.
Available damages include money for:
- Medical expenses for additional care made necessary by the delay
- Advanced treatments that timely care could have prevented
- Lost income and diminished future earning potential
- Pain and suffering associated with advanced disease/aggressive therapies
- Emotional distress
- Reduced quality of life
You may be entitled to wrongful death damages if the diagnostic failure led to the death of a loved one. These help pay for funeral expenses, lost companionship, and loss of financial support, among other things.
Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations generally only provides two years from the point you discovered the medical negligence to initiate a lawsuit. So, you shouldn’t wait to take legal action.
If a doctor’s failure to diagnose your prostate cancer in a timely manner caused your condition to deteriorate, contact Morris Wilson Knepp Jacquette, P.C. to discuss your rights after your doctor failed to diagnose your condition and remedies for holding the responsible parties liable.