Failure to Diagnose Cancer

Today, there are many screening tests physicians utilize for early detection of cancer. For instance, yearly pap smears and mammograms are valuable tools to detect cervical and breast cancer in women over 40. Mammography every six months may be the standard of care when fibrous or other suspicious tissue appears on a mammogram.

Colonoscopy and flexible sigmoidoscopy are two tests utilized to detect cancers in the colon and rectum. However, with flexible sigmoidoscopy, only about one-third of the entire colon is viewed and it will not detect cancer higher up in the colon.

Cancers can be missed when these important early detection tests are not properly administered or when they are not ordered because of cost considerations. Mammograms can be misinterpreted or misread by a radiologist often leading to an enlargement or spread of breast cancer. Important signs like unexplained extensive weight loss, or enlargement of lymph nodes can also be missed. Finally, a biopsy which is misread or which does not properly sample the suspicious tissue in question is another way cancer can be missed.