Man Diagnosed With Advanced Prostate Cancer After Five Years Of Symptoms And Abnormal Tests
Prostate cancer is a terrible disease. Even if not 100% accurate there are diagnostic tests that assist doctors to identify when the cancer is present in a patient. However as a consequence of the chance of false negatives (a negative test outcome even though the patient actually has cancer) doctors must follow up and redo tests as appropriate when patient complaints and screening tests continue to signal the possibility of cancer. Not doing so might give rise to a lawsuit for medical malpractice.
In one documented claim a patient communcated to his primary care physician that he was experiencing urinary frequency and burning. The doctor commenced the patient on antibiotics and refered him to a urologist. The urologist conducted a cystoscopy which revealed that the individual had an enlarged prostate. The urologist also did a PSA blood test which came back a 16.3 (a result above a 4.0 is generally considered to be elevated). Because of that the urologist did a biopsy 2 months later. The biopsy was interpreted by a pathologist as showing no sign of cancer.
The subsequent year the individual returned to the urologist. Now the PSA blood test was a 2.9 (normally regarded as in normal range). The urologist diagnosed the patient with BPH (a noncancerous enlargement of the prostate). After 3 months the man consulted the PCP for fever and nocturia (needing to urinate during the night). The physician began him on another round of antibiotics. A follow up urine culture came back negative. The primary care physician hence referred him to the urologist. The urologist took a PSA test which registered a 6.4 ( high).
A biopsy analyzes samples of the prostate. Therefore, a biopsy might not catch the cancer. Yet, the urologist chose to depend on the prior year