Delays in Diagnosing Cancer

To the experienced attorneys at Mandell, Boisclair & Mandell, a delayed cancer diagnosis means there was a significant gap between when your cancer should have been found and when it was actually diagnosed. This is particularly relevant in cases where that delay made your condition worse. In other words, the warning signs, test results, or risk factors were there, but your provider did not act as a reasonably careful medical professional would have, and you have faced consequences as a result.

A delay in the diagnosis of cancer can happen at multiple points during your care. It may be the result of not ordering the appropriate tests, misreading lab work, failing to follow up on abnormal results, or dismissing symptoms that should have prompted action, but not every delay in diagnosis qualifies as medical malpractice. However, if the cancer progressed, required more aggressive treatment, or caused a loss of treatment options because it was not promptly diagnosed, you may have cause to file suit.

At Mandell, Boisclair & Mandell, we collaborate with both internal and external medical experts who carefully review records and treatments to determine if and when malpractice may have occurred. Unpacking the chain of events enables us to hold negligent healthcare providers accountable and pursue maximum compensation for your injuries.

The lawyers at Mandell, Boisclair & Mandell have found that any type of cancer can be involved in a delayed diagnosis claim. These include:

• Breast cancer
• Colorectal cancer
• Cervical cancer
• Melanoma
• Lymphoma
• Prostate cancer
• Lung cancer

While many of these have symptoms that mimic less serious conditions, such as respiratory infections or benign cysts, the key issue is usually not the type of cancer itself, but whether your symptoms, history, and test results should have led to catching the disease sooner. When you face the consequences of a delayed cancer diagnosis, regardless of its type, you need a legal team on your side with the background, experience, and resources to identify where the missed diagnosis occurred and who can be held liable for the subsequent medical expenses, lost wages, and impact on your life.

At Mandell, Boisclair & Mandell, our lawyers have seen delays in diagnosing cancer arise from overlooked red flags that may, at first, appear to be minor or routine. These include:

• Persistent cough or hoarseness
• Unexplained weight loss
• Long-lasting fatigue
• Changes in bowel or bladder habits
• Abnormal bleeding
• A newly discovered lump

Test-related problems are also common. Abnormal bloodwork that is never followed up on, mammograms with suspicious findings that are not followed by ultrasound or biopsy, colonoscopy results that are misread, or pathology reports that are interpreted incorrectly can all delay a correct diagnosis. So too can diagnostic errors, including:

• Imaging centers misreading scans
• Laboratories mishandling or misinterpreting pathology slides
• Failing to consult with experts
• Communication breakdowns between doctors, hospitals, and testing facilities

In many cancer misdiagnosis cases, the evidence shows that the information needed to catch the disease earlier was already in the medical record. It was just missed, downplayed, or not acted on in time.

The medical malpractice lawyers at Mandell, Boisclair & Mandell thoroughly review medical records, diagnostic results, and other important pieces of evidence to identify how a misdiagnosis occurred. We are committed to helping victims of this often devastating form of negligence get the compensation necessary to make the best recovery possible.

The medical malpractice lawyers at Mandell, Boisclair & Mandell know that time matters enormously with cancer. A delayed diagnosis can allow a tumor to grow larger, invade nearby tissue, or spread to lymph nodes and distant organs. That progression can move you from an early-stage cancer with a strong chance of cure to a later stage where treatment is more aggressive, more toxic, and less likely to succeed.

A delayed cancer diagnosis can mean the difference between a lumpectomy and a mastectomy, between localized radiation and extensive chemotherapy, and between organ-preserving surgery and a permanent loss of function. A delay can also close the door on certain clinical trials or advanced therapies that are only available during early stages of the disease.

Even when a cure is still possible, you may face longer treatment courses, more side effects, longer time away from work, and a higher risk of recurrence. All of these things must be taken into account when calculating your damages.

At Mandell, Boisclair & Mandell, we carefully consider how your delayed cancer diagnosis has and will continue to impact your financial, physical, and emotional health. By building strong, evidence-based cases, we are able to pursue the maximum compensation that can provide access to advanced treatments to help you make the fullest recovery.

Responsibility for a delayed cancer diagnosis often does not fall on just one person. At Mandell, Boisclair & Mandell, we work to identify them all.

A primary care doctor may be liable for failing to take a complaint seriously or for not ordering appropriate tests. A radiologist may be responsible for misreading a mammogram, chest x-ray, CT, or MRI. A pathologist or laboratory might be at fault if slides are misinterpreted or specimens are mishandled. Hospital and medical groups may bear responsibility for understaffing, poor communication systems, or policies that contribute to dangerous delays.

A thorough medical malpractice investigation looks at every provider and entity involved in your care. In this way, each party that contributed to the delay can be held accountable for the harm that followed.

With a team that includes medical experts and a long history of investigating these claims, the medical malpractice lawyers at Mandell, Boisclair & Mandell leave no stone unturned. Damages from multiple parties can be sought through a single claim. We will pursue them all and help you seek fair and full compensation for the harm they have caused.

The lawyers at Mandell, Boisclair & Mandell have handled numerous delayed cancer diagnosis claims, but not each case we see qualifies as medical malpractice. Medicine is complex, and symptoms can be vague. Some cancers are also extremely aggressive, even when everyone does their job correctly. The question, however, isn’t, “Was your healthcare provider perfect?” It’s “Did your healthcare provider meet the acceptable standard of care?”

For a delay to rise to the level of malpractice, you must be able to show that a reasonably careful medical professional would have recognized the warning signs, ordered additional tests, or referred to a specialist sooner. You must also be able to show that this failure caused measurable harm, such as the progression of the cancer, loss of a chance for a cure, or the need for significantly more invasive treatments. Sorting out whether those elements are present requires a detailed review of the records and consultations with qualified medical experts.

Many firms find proving medical malpractice to be too daunting a task, but not Mandell, Boisclair & Mandell. We accept a variety of claims and never shy away from a difficult task. With attorneys who focus on medical issues, including the delayed diagnosis of cancer, and medical professionals on staff, we are uniquely qualified to identify malpractice under even the most complex circumstances.

Many of the medical malpractice claims handled by Mandell, Boisclair & Mandell address what actually happened during a single surgery, birth, procedure, or hospital stay. A delayed cancer diagnosis claim addresses what might have happened if a proper diagnosis had come earlier. Fundamentally, these are different questions that may require different approaches.

Delayed cancer diagnosis cases require careful reconstruction of a timeline. This includes looking at when symptoms first appeared, when you first sought care, what tests were ordered and when, how results were interpreted, and how the cancer progressed over time. They may also require the input of oncologists, radiologists, pathologists, primary care experts, and epidemiologists who can explain how the standard of care was breached.

At Mandell, Boisclair & Mandell, we frequently work with medical experts from a variety of fields to establish liability and build our cases. Deeply experienced in these cases, we invest the time and resources needed to prove what went wrong, how that error impacted your life, and what you will need to heal and move forward.