Tests Show Possibility Of Cancer Yet Doctor Repeatedly Fails To Notify Patient
Male patients tend to possess a poor knowledge of prostate cancer, their own risk for the cancer, and how to determine whether they have prostate cancer. Many men have minimal, if any, knowledge of the merit of testing for prostate cancer or of the recommendations for when they should commence testing, how frequently to screen, and the meaning of screening test results. However, far too often, doctors diagnose the cancer only after it is past the early stages as a consequence of deficient of screening.
Delayed diagnosis of prostate cancer cases are all too common. One typical medical mistake that is at the root of these cases happens when a man's family doctor (1) orders a PSA blood test, (2) notes abnormally raised levels of PSA and but (3) does not inform the patient, fails to refer the patient to a urologist, and fails to order a biopsy to determine whether the elevated PSA is due to prostate cancer. The claim below is an example of this problem.
A doctor, an internist, learned that his male patient had a PSA of 8. (anything above a 4.0 is ordinarily thought to be high). The physician did not tell the patient. The doctor failed to refer the patient to a specialist. The doctor did not order a biopsy. Two years later the doctor repeated the PSA test. This time the PSA level had gone up to 13.6. Once again, the physician did not inform the patient. Again, the doctor did not refer the patient to a urologist. And again, the doctor did not order a biopsy. Two years later the doctor repeated the PSA test. It was not until three years after first finding out about the patient