Being misdiagnosed with cancer does not necessarily mean that the patient does not have cancer. It simply indicates that the oncologist in charge has made a mistake in identifying the existence, type, location, or severity of the cancer. A cancer misdiagnosis can alternatively mean that the misdiagnosed patient did not even have cancer, which may not seem like bad news. Unfortunately, that also means the original disease or cause was left undiagnosed and untreated. Depending on the situation, this can lead to even graver outcomes than a timely, proper diagnosis of cancer.
Besides, if the oncologist had already started the patient on chemo and/or radiation therapy before the misdiagnosis was realized, that can be an excruciatingly painful, if not lethal consequence. Therefore, it is important to know the indicative signs of a possible cancer misdiagnosis, so that one can act well before things get worse for the patient.
Premature Diagnosis
It is common to see experienced doctors making early diagnoses based on inconclusive tests and their own experience. As any cancer misdiagnosis lawyer will tell you, such specialists are wrong on more occasions than they ought to be. No doctor should reach a conclusion regarding anything about cancer (positive, negative, or severity), unless they have gone through enough medical examination reports to confirm or negate their suspicions.
Ineffective Treatment
Treating cancer does not come with a guarantee of remission and some cancers are just untreatable. However, patients with treatable conditions such as Hodgkin lymphoma, melanoma, thyroid cancer, testicular cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and cervical cancer have a high chance of making partial to complete recovery, provided the malignancy is diagnosed at an early stage. When a doctor fails to identify such a cancer in its early stage though, the patient loses his/her chances of making the recovery that they very well could have.
If a patient was earlier suspected by a doctor that they could be suffering from some type of cancer, but he/she was given confirmation later that they do not have cancer, it could be a sign of cancer misdiagnosis. In case the patient finds the new treatment to be ineffective and they continue to get worse, seeking a second opinion at the earliest is highly advised. If cancer is indeed detected later on, that creates strong grounds for filing a medical malpractice lawsuit. The affected party should immediately seek legal counsel from an experienced cancer misdiagnosis lawyer at the earliest.
Preventive Measure: The Second Opinion
Even if the best oncologist in the city confirms the presence of malignant growths, it is highly advised that the patient takes a second opinion from a different oncologist. A lot of people avoid the second opinion for very understandable reasons. First and foremost, the news that someone has cancer can be devastating and the patient party may feel lost and directionless right after.
On the flipside, if a famous oncologist just confirmed that the patient does not have cancer, very few people will seek another consultation that may or may not tell them that they have the deadly disease. Since oncologists are not just medical practitioners, but they are also supposed to be cancer specialists, it is only natural for them to trust their doctor and follow their advice.
Secondly, it is neither cheap, nor comforting for patients to consult multiple renowned oncologists and have the same medical examinations performed on them several times. Despite all the hurdles, a second opinion is still an expense worth making to avoid something as critically disastrous as a cancer misdiagnosis.
