Failure to Diagnose Lung Cancer

Orlando, Florida

Lung cancer is the deadliest form of cancer. More than a quarter of all cancer deaths in the United States are from lung cancer. The five year survival rate for lung cancer is only 15.6%, compared to 65.2% for colon cancer, 89.1% for breast cancer, and 99.7% for prostate cancer. One of the main reasons for lung cancer's low survival rate is delayed diagnosis of cancer. If detected late, lung cancer has only a 10% survival rate, but if detected early survival rates can be as high as 70%.

If you or a loved one had a delayed diagnosis of cancer that led to aggressive treatment, diminished quality of life, or death, you may be eligible for compensation. Call or email the Orlando, Florida personal injury attorneys at Colling Gilbert Wright & Carter today to discuss your legal options.

Screening for Lung Cancer

One factor that makes lung cancer more deadly than other cancers is that there is no single accepted early screening method for lung cancer. However, there are some potential screening tools that can sometimes detect lung cancer at an early stage. If you are part of a high risk group, such as smokers or persons who worked with asbestos or have had tuberculosis, potential screening tools may be beneficial to try to detect lung cancer early.

Using chest x-rays to screen for lung cancer is a controversial topic in the medical community. According to the study known as the Mayo Lung Project, chest x-rays did not increase survival rates of patients. However, as designed, the Mayo Lung Project study was only sensitive to a 50% decrease in death rates, meaning that chest x-rays could provide a benefit of 10, 20, 30% or more without being detected by the study. A larger study, known as the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial (PLCO) sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, is expected to answer the question by 2015. Preliminary results indicate that although chest x-rays do give many false positives, they also detect cancers in early stages, potentially increasing survival rates.

According to a 2006 study in the New England Journal of Medicine, spiral computed tomography (spiral CT) allows for the detection of early lung cancer, giving an opportunity for early surgical treatment and increasing 10-year survival rates for lung cancer to 92%. This type of screening for at-risk populations could potentially reduce lung cancer deaths by 80%.

Lung Cancer Screening and Medical Malpractice

The absence of a good screening tool for lung cancer does not mean that no screening is the best option. If your doctor did not discuss the options for lung cancer screening, it may have reduced your chances of survival, especially if you are part of an at-risk population. Similarly, if you had a chest x-ray to diagnose another condition, and a suspicious mass was visible but was not investigated, your lifetime may have been shortened. Sometimes, hints of cancer show up in routine blood tests but are not investigated. Finally, if you report symptoms consistent with lung cancer that were dismissed or explained away without giving you options to detect or rule out lung cancer that was diagnosed at a later stage, medical malpractice may be responsible for shortening your life.

If you or a loved one were diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer that you believe should have been detected earlier, we can help. Contact the medical malpractice lawyers at Colling Gilbert Wright & Carter today to learn more about your legal options.