The Doctor’s Company, the largest physician-owned medical malpractice insurer in the United States, has published a concise nonexhaustive list of various ways that physicians may be sued for medical malpractice involving the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer:

19 Ways to Get Sued for Breast Cancer Involving the History and Physical Examination

  1. Assume that a mass in a young woman is not cancer.
  2. Ignore a breast mass in a pregnant woman.
  3. Ignore a breast mass in a lactating woman.
  4. Ignore a breast mass in an elderly woman.
  5. Allow a negative physical examination to delay biopsy in a patient with a suspicious mammogram.
  6. Believe that the absence of grave signs of breast cancer is evidence against the presence of breast cancer.
  7. Assume a nipple discharge is just hormonal.
  8. Assume the presence or absence of breast pain is an important determinant of cancer.
  9. Fail to document history, physical examination, and plan for follow up.
  10. Order a diagnostic study and fail to assure it is completed.
  11. Allow a patient with a known lesion to be lost to follow up.
  12. Tell a patient not to worry about a mass she brings to your attention.
  13. Fail to suggest breast cancer screening in appropriate patients.
  14. Fail to assure that breast cancer screening includes both a physical examination and a mammogram.
  15. Fail to take an adequate family history.
  16. Fail to discuss breast cancer prevention in high-risk patients.
  17. Fail to discuss family screening for a patient with a strong family history of breast cancer or who is known to carry BRCA 1 or 2.
  18. Dismiss palpable axillary lymph nodes as simply normal.
  19. Tell a patient she would have been cured if only we had found the lesion earlier.

10 Ways to Get Sued for Breast Cancer Involving Mammograms

  1. Allow a negative mammogram to delay biopsy of a suspicious mass.
  2. Allow an indeterminate mammogram to delay biopsy of a suspicious mass.
  3. Allow a negative breast ultrasound to exclude cancer in the face of an indeterminate mammogram.
  4. Read a technically inadequate mammogram.
  5. Fail to compare current mammograms to prior studies.
  6. Fail to personally inform the referring physician of suspicious findings.
  7. File an abnormal mammogram report without contacting the patient.
  8. Fail to obtain a specimen or post-biopsy mammogram in a patient with diffuse microcalcifications.
  9. Perform a mammogram on a self-referred patient without assuring clinical follow up.
  10. Tell a patient that with the benefit of hindsight, a nonspecific finding on a prior mammogram was actually cancer.

10 Ways to Get Sued for Breast Cancer Involving Biopsy and Treatment

  1. Issue a pathology report without reviewing prior biopsies.
  2. Issue a pathology report without understanding the clinical context.
  3. Fail to personally inform the referring physician of a suspicious finding on a biopsy.
  4. Allow a negative fine-needle aspiration to exclude a diagnosis of breast cancer.
  5. Perform definitive breast surgery relying on an outside pathology report from a pathologist you do not know.
  6. Perform definitive breast surgery without waiting for a definitive pathology report.
  7. Fail to offer breast conservation therapy to appropriate patients.
  8. Treat inflammatory lesions of the breast with antibiotics without assuring complete resolution.
  9. Treat enlarged axillary lymph nodes with antibiotics without assuring complete resolution.
  10. Assume a patient will be grateful because your decision to delay biopsy of a lesion, which proved to be malignant, was based on sound clinical judgment.

Source

If you or a family member suffered harm as a result of breast cancer malpractice in the United States, you should promptly find a breast cancer medical malpractice lawyer in your state who may investigate your breast cancer medical malpractice claim for you and represent you or your family member in a breast cancer medical malpractice case, if appropriate.

Visit our website or call us toll free in the United States at 800-295-3959 to find cancer malpractice attorneys in your state who may assist you.

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