The only thing more frightening than a cancer diagnosis is receiving that diagnosis many months after first seeking medical attention for the symptoms, only to learn that the cancer has advanced by the time it’s accurately diagnosed. When caught in stage one, most cancers are curable. Even more advanced cancers can be cured when caught in stage two or three, but require far more aggressive treatment. Tragically, when cancer is misdiagnosed as another condition and allowed to advance to stage four, the outcome is often terminal disease and death.
Medical journals indicate an alarming 28 percent of cancers are initially misdiagnosed, a far higher rate than the less than 10% rate doctors surveyed believed it to be.
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Types of Cancers That are Most Commonly Misdiagnosed
Lymphoma Is the Number One Misdiagnosed Cancer
A joint study conducted by Best Doctors and the National Coalition on Healthcare reveals lymphoma as the number one type of misdiagnosed cancer. Lymphoma often presents with vague symptoms such as weight loss, fatigue, night sweats, and fever—all of which are attributable to a variety of less serious conditions, such as the flu.
Enlarged lymph nodes are a key indicator of lymphoma, but lymph nodes may also swell due to viral and bacterial infections. Furthermore, the broad range of lymphoma subtypes makes symptoms and disease progression vary between patients, making it more difficult to recognize.
When not promptly diagnosed and treated, lymphoma allows the cancer to progress to more advanced stages, requiring more aggressive treatment and worsening the patient’s prognosis.
Understanding Breast Cancer Misdiagnosis
Breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancer to be misdiagnosed. This is due to the difficulty in differentiating between normal breast tissue and cancerous tissue, both by feel and through medical imaging. Doctors sometimes misdiagnose breast cancer as fibrocystic breasts, a benign condition that causes lumpy breasts during a woman’s monthly cycle changes.
Breast cancer may also be misdiagnosed as mastitis when it occurs in a nursing mother. Mastitis is an infection caused by a blocked milk gland and may cause fever, as well as a lump and redness.
When diagnosed in stage one, breast cancer is easily treatable and allows the woman to choose between a less aggressive lumpectomy or a preventative mastectomy to prevent further cancers from developing. Unfortunately, when breast cancer metastasizes to nearby lymph nodes (stage two), to distant lymph nodes (stage three), or to one or more organs, the necessary treatment is more aggressive, and the prognosis becomes grim.
Lung Cancer Is Commonly Misdiagnosed as Viral Illness
Because the most common early symptom of lung cancer is a cough, it’s often overlooked, causing delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis as a respiratory illness. Viral and bacterial lung conditions, such as colds, pneumonia, bronchitis, and allergies, can cause coughing. As lung cancer progresses, it causes shortness of breath, which may be misdiagnosed as asthma or COPD.
When lung cancer is misdiagnosed as another illness, it progresses to more advanced stages, commonly with the development of additional tumors in the lungs, then metastasizing to the lymph nodes and other organs, such as the liver, digestive system, and brain.
Melanoma and Other Skin Cancers
Melanoma is a deadly type of skin cancer that develops in the pigment cells of the skin. It may begin in an existing mole or appear as a new mole. Because melanoma varies in shape, size, and color, it’s sometimes misdiagnosed as a normal mole, freckle, age spot, or other harmless lesion. In other cases, melanoma is misdiagnosed as another type of skin cancer—one that doesn’t metastasize internally, resulting in a less aggressive treatment than required for melanoma.
Unlike other skin cancers, melanoma may metastasize and appear as tumors in the lungs, liver, and brain. In stage one, melanoma is completely curable through excision. When melanoma advances deeper into the skin layers, it requires more aggressive treatment and is far more difficult to cure.
Other types of skin cancer may also be misdiagnosed as dry skin, eczema, or contact-allergy rashes.
Prostate Cancer In Men
Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers in men. Still, because older men often suffer benign changes in their prostate, medical providers may misdiagnose prostate cancer as other conditions, such as prostatitis. In other cases, prostate cancer is misdiagnosed as urinary tract infections, bladder infections, or bladder cancer.
Prostate cancer is treatable when caught in the early stages of the disease. Failure to diagnose prostate cancer or misdiagnosing it as a different condition can cause the disease to progress to more advanced stages, requiring more aggressive treatment or becoming terminal.
Ovarian Cancer In Women
Ovarian cancer has vague symptoms, such as pelvic pain, bloating, and changes in bowel movements that mimic many other conditions that are common in women, such as ovulation pain, endometriosis, and intestinal disorders.
When ovarian cancer is misdiagnosed as a different medical condition, it advances to more serious stages, including spreading to the bladder, liver, lungs, and brain. Delaying the accurate treatment of ovarian cancer requires more aggressive treatment and shortens life expectancy.
What Causes Cancer Misdiagnosis?
Doctors have an obligation to their patients to properly assess the patient’s condition, order appropriate diagnostic tests, accurately interpret the test results, and make a prompt diagnosis to initiate the appropriate course of treatment. Unfortunately, doctors sometimes fail to take a complete medical history; administrators fail to obtain or transfer a patient’s complete medical history; or doctors neglect to order and accurately interpret test results, leading to misdiagnosis.
In addition to a delay in appropriate treatment, patients who are misdiagnosed with another illness may receive medications and other treatments that they don’t need. Studies indicate that hundreds of billions of dollars are wasted each year on misdiagnosed illnesses.
Understanding Duty of Care In Diagnosing Cancer
Doctors and other medical providers are held to a high standard of care. Their duty of care to patients requires them to treat their patients at the standard of care that’s accepted by the medical community. When a provider breaches this duty of care, and the result is advanced disease or wrongful death, with physical and financial damages, the medical provider is liable for the damages through a medical malpractice claim.