Man Diagnosed With Advanced Prostate Cancer Even After Five Years Of Symptoms And Abnormal Tests

Prostate cancer is a terrible disease. Even though not perfect doctors use diagnostics tests to doctors to identify if the cancer is present in a patient. Yet given the chance of false negatives (a negative test outcome while the patient actually has cancer) physicians must follow up and redo tests as appropriate if patient symptoms and screening tests keep showing the possibility of cancer. Not doing so might leave the physician liable for malpractice.

In one recorded lawsuit a patient communcated to his primary care doctor that he was having urinary frequency and burning. The physician started the patient on antibiotics and refered him to a urologist. The urologist conducted a cystoscopy which revealed that the man had an enlarged prostate. The urologist also did a PSA blood test which came back a 16.3 (a level above a 4.0 is generally regarded as elevated). As a result the urologist did a biopsy two months later. The biopsy was read by a pathologist as benign.

The following year the patient returned to the urologist. Now the PSA came back a 2.9 (usually accepted as in normal range). The urologist diagnosed the patient with BPH (a benign enlargement of the prostate). Three months later the individual saw the family doctor with complaints of fever and nocturia (having to urinate during the night). The doctor started him on another round of antibiotics. A follow up urine culture registered negative. The PCP therefore referred the man back to the urologist. The urologist took a PSA test which registered a 6.4 ( high).

A biopsy analyzes parts of the prostate. Therefore, a biopsy can not catch the cancer. At this point, the urologist chose to use the previous years biopsy and to not perform an additional one as a follow up. Instead, the urologist did nothing to do anything more with regards to the mans complaints and elevated PSA.

A year later the individual went back to his primary care physician. His issues continued to include nocturia. On physical examination the physician documented that the patient had a highly enlarged prostate. Still, the physician failed to do another a PSA or re-refer the patient to a urologist. Regular blood testing four months afterwards revealed that the person's PSA was at 7.4 Neither physician followed up in any way.

The subsequent year the family doctor noted that the PSA level was 9.8 Once more, no follow up or referral to a urologist. Still an additional year and the patient continues to have problems with nocturia. This time the PSA was 9.7 No follow up and no referral. Five years after the male patient's first reports of urinary problems the primary care physician again documented a considerably enlarged prostate gland and a PSA that had reached a 31. The doctor lastly refered the individual back to the urologist.

The urologist verified that the patients prostate was enlarged and put the patient on antibiotics for (two weeksto be followed by one more PSA blood test. After the PSA test was repeated two weeks later it registered a 33. A biopsy was then at last done which uncovered cancer in all six of the samples.

Testing later found that the patient had prostate cancer which had spread to the lymph nodes, the liver and bone. Notwithstanding hormone therapy and radiation therapy the man died approximately 18 months following his diagnosis. The law firm that handled this matter reported that a settlement for $1,000,000 was achieved in the case.