Early diagnosis is crucial in the successful treatment of breast cancer. Although breast screenings have saved countless lives over the years, they are not always accurate. Even after having routine mammograms over the years, which have always indicated no cancerous lesions, some women nevertheless have been found to have cancer that should have been detected earlier.

Early signs of breast cancer

These signs do not appear all at once, and not all will appear in everybody. No single sign is a guarantee that cancer is present.

• A small lump which is usually painless and firm
• The nipple inverts, discharges fluid or develops a rash
• A dent or depression on the breast surface
• Swelling on the breast or in the armpit
• More visible veins

Inflammatory breast cancer does not produce any lump, but shows swelling and redness. It is hard to detect through a mammogram and instead is found through a biopsy or the attentiveness of the doctor.

Cancer stages

Cancers are classified in a variety of ways, but the best known way divides them into four stages:

• Stage I - where it is small and has not yet spread beyond the initial location
• Stage II - where it is larger but still local
• Stage III - where it is even larger and cancer cells have spread to the nearby lymph nodes (lymph is a fluid which circulates in the body in a system like the blood vessel system)
• Stage IV - where it has spread to another body organ

When treatment begins in Stage I, the outlook is optimistic and people usually recover well. If treatment is delayed to Stage IV, the prognosis is much grimmer. At Stage III too, the prognosis is difficult, since the cancer cells have entered the lymph system and can therefore be carried to other parts of the body.

Basis for a claim

If you have developed breast cancer after being informed that the mammogram or breast exam showed no signs of it, and if enough time goes by to allow the cancer to develop to a later stage, so that treatment will be less likely to succeed, you might have a basis for a claim.

To succeed in a failure to diagnose case, you must prove the same elements that make up all medical malpractice cases:

• That the defendant had a duty to diagnose your cancer in a timely fashion
• That the defendant failed in that duty
• That this failure caused your injury

You must be able to prove that the failure to diagnose allowed the cancer to progress to a later stage.

Medical malpractice FAQs

If you think your breast cancer should have been diagnosed earlier, and that your treatment would be more effective now if that had been done, contact Chicago medical negligence attorney Barry Doyle for your free legal consultation. No recovery, no fee.

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