Despite tremendous medical advances in the past decade, cancer remains one of the most dreaded diagnoses. Some cancers come with a grim prognosis for long-term survival from the moment they are diagnosed. Others, however, can often be treated successfully if they are caught early enough. The strides made by the medical profession in treating cancers that were once considered incurable, makes negligent misdiagnosis of cancer all the more tragic.

Two cancers that may be curable if diagnosed early, but fatal if diagnosis and treatment are delayed, are the skin cancer, melanoma, and colon cancer. While many cancers have a genetic component, melanomas are thought to often be related to sun exposure. When melanomas are diagnosed before they have had the chance to spread beyond their original location (spread of cancerous tumors to distant parts of the body, is known as “metastasis”), the patient may be completely cured by simple excision of the cancer and some surrounding tissue as a safeguard. On the other hand, melanomas that metastasize, are amongst the most lethal of cancers.

Colon cancer often begins as a non-cancerous polyp in the colon. Over time, sometimes years, the polyp may grow and change to become a cancer. Even at that point, colon cancer that is contained within the colon or just beyond the colon walls, have a high rate of cure. Once, however, the colon cancer has metastasized to other parts of the body – known as “stage four” colon cancer, the prognosis for long-term survival is grim. Routine screening with colonoscopy for people over 50, is now a regular part of our medical system, because of colon cancer’s slow rate of growth, and the good opportunity to find and remove polyps before they become malignant, or to cure the patient if colon cancer is found in one of its earlier stages.

Medical malpractice cases based on negligent failure to diagnose cancer take several forms. Amongst the most common type of cancer malpractice case, are those in which a doctor or radiologist missed a tumor that was clearly evident on an x-ray or CT scan. Other cancer malpractice cases may be based on the doctor’s failure to conduct a differential diagnosis adequate to determine the cause of suspicious symptoms – for example, rectal bleeding from early stage colon cancer. In every case, the plaintiff has the burden of proving that had the doctor not been negligent, it is likely to a “reasonable degree of medical certainty” that the cancer could have been cured, or at least, that the plaintiff could have benefited significantly from earlier treatment. Defendants’ experts in cancer malpractice cases sometimes use bogus science to claim that they can determine that the cancer was already incurable by the time the plaintiff claims it should have been diagnosed. A solid cancer malpractice case, thoroughly prepared, can result in a deserved victory for the patient whose life may be lost or impaired by medical negligence.