What is cancer lawsuits?

A cancer misdiagnosis can be devastating for patients and their families. When a cancer misdiagnosis is the result of medical negligence, those who are affected may choose to file cancer lawsuits. Cancer lawsuits can help patients to recover financial compensation for the physical, mental, and financial harm experienced as a result of cancer misdiagnosis from medical negligence. Patients or family members who wish to pursue a cancer lawsuit should speak with an experienced cancer misdiagnosis attorney as soon as possible to determine if there is a case and to discuss legal options moving forward.

Failure to Diagnose or Treat Cancer
Often, the key to obtaining the best possible outcome with cancer is early detection and diagnosis. Treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery give great hope to cancer patients whose condition is caught early enough for these remedies to be effective. In the past few years, a campaign to educate the public about early warning signs and symptoms of cancer has been fairly successful. Unfortunately, errors by health care professionals still present a barrier to receiving a diagnosis and timely treatment.

All health care professionals should evaluate patients who have specific risk factors for certain types of cancer including breast cancer and colon cancer. Most doctors are trained to conduct a differential diagnosis. This means that they list in order of danger to the patient their impressions or possible diagnoses of the causes of a patient’s symptoms. Patients who present with certain symptoms should be given diagnostic tests and procedures to rule out cancer.

When a doctor fails to diagnose cancer, it becomes critical to ask what diagnoses a reasonably prudent doctor in the same or similar circumstances would have considered when listing potential causes for the symptoms. When a doctor failed to consider the true diagnosis or listed it but failed to rule it out, and a reasonably prudent physician with the same knowledge and training would not have done the same, the doctor may be sued for medical malpractice. He or she can potentially be liable for any injury or progression of cancer beyond what would have resulted from a timely diagnosis.

It can be difficult to prove that a doctor’s failure to list or rule out a particular diagnosis is the cause of cancer spreading, or “metastatis,” or that a patient has a worse prognosis because of a delay in diagnosis. At trial, the doctor and his or her medical experts may testify that micrometastasis can occur as early as 10 years before a first tumor is diagnosed and that cancerous cells had already traveled through the blood, lodging elsewhere, by the time the patient came in to see the doctor.

Misdiagnosis or inappropriate treatment of cancer is also malpractice. It can arise when a doctor tries a new or novel treatment when a more conventional treatment would have caused the patient to improve. In those cases, the patient’s cancer may worsen to a point where no treatments are effective.

Proving a Cancer Lawsuit
Proving a cancer misdiagnosis lawsuit can present unique challenges. In a cancer misdiagnosis lawsuit, the plaintiff must show that the defendant’s negligent actions were responsible for the harm the patient experienced. Negligence is defined as the doctor’s carelessness or lack of proper care and attention during the medical process. In addition to doctors, cancer misdiagnosis lawsuits may also be filed against any party with legal responsibility to diagnose and treat the patient. This includes assistants, nurses, primary care physicians and specialists, pathologists and other laboratory testing employees, as well as the companies and entities that employ them.

Determining Negligence

In order to determine medical negligence, the court will examine the doctor’s behavior in comparison to the industry’s standard of care. The standard of care is the expected medical treatment that a patient would receive from any qualified, competent medical professional in that particular field. During a cancer misdiagnosis lawsuit, the court will compare the actions of the doctor in question to the actions that would have been taken by a doctor with similar expertise, knowledge, and experience.

Damages and Compensation
Cancer patients who win cancer lawsuits are awarded certain types of damages. Lawsuit damages are primarily classified as economic, non-economic, and punitive. Economic damages aim to compensate victims for financial loss, which may include medical bills and wages lost due to missed work. Non-economic damages measure harm that cannot be quantified, such as loss of overall quality of life. Punitive damages are used to “punish” the defendant for harmful actions and act as a deterrent for other medical professionals.

Cancer lawsuit plaintiffs may receive compensation for other damages such as:

Physical and emotional pain and suffering
Loss of consortium, or loss of a spouse
Permanent disfigurement
Loss or impairment of physical or mental capacity
Costs of past, current, and projected future medical bills
Other Types of Cancer Litigation
While cancer misdiagnosis cases focus on a lack of proper cancer treatment, several types of cancer lawsuits focus on the cause of the patient’s cancer. These cancer lawsuits include cases where patients allege that another party was directly responsible for the development of cancer. Defending parties, or parties being sued, may include manufacturers and employers.

Manufacturer Cancer Litigation

Cancer litigation may involve manufacturers of certain products or processes that are believed to cause cancer. These cases often occur on behalf of large numbers of cancer victims, such as a class action or mass tort. These types of cancer litigation involve a large group of individuals filing similar lawsuits against the same party. For example, mass cancer litigation may involve hundreds of bladder cancer patients who are suing a particular pharmaceutical company for manufacturing a cancer-causing drug.

Employer Cancer Litigation

Cancer litigation may occur against other parties which are believed to be responsible for a patient’s cancer development, such as an employer. This can be seen in an instance where a lung cancer patient files a cancer lawsuit against an employer or company for work conditions that exposed the patient to asbestos. Asbestos is strongly associated with lung cancer development.

Cancer Litigation Legal Help
Cancer litigation is a complex and challenging process that can be especially stressful for patients who already face significant health issues. Cancer patients or family members who believe that the condition was worsened due to the negligence of a medical professional should speak with an experienced cancer misdiagnosis lawyer as soon as possible. A cancer lawyer can help answer questions and determine if there is a cancer litigation opportunity. If a cancer lawsuit is filed, the cancer lawyer will navigate the legal process and work to collect and provide courts with the information necessary for a successful case.


Failure to Diagnose or Treat Cancer
Often, the key to obtaining the best possible outcome with cancer is early detection and diagnosis. Treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery give great hope to cancer patients whose condition is caught early enough for these remedies to be effective. In the past few years, a campaign to educate the public about early warning signs and symptoms of c