What Are the Most Commonly Misdiagnosed Types of Cancer?

If you or a loved one has received a cancer diagnosis, it can feel like your entire world has turned upside down. Your immediate response may turn toward discussing treatment options so you can start dealing with the ailment as soon as possible. However, there’s a possibility that the ailment isn’t cancer and the doctor misdiagnosed you. Or the opposite situation could be the case: you have cancer, but received a different diagnosis, leaving the illness untreated. A Baltimore cancer misdiagnosis lawyer from Belsky & Horowitz, LLC can help you seek justice.

Types of Cancer That Doctors Can Misdiagnose

Some types of cancer can be commonly misdiagnosed. They are as follows:

• Lung Cancer. When someone is exhibiting issues like coughing, wheezing, or shortness of breath, doctors may diagnose it has bronchitis or a type of pneumonia. If they miss evidence of lung cancer, the disease could progress.
• Breast Cancer. This kind of cancer could be diagnosed as a cyst or fibroids. These conditions are much less dangerous than breast cancer. However, if the doctor misses the symptoms of breast cancer and the patient doesn’t undergo treatment, the result could be deadly.
• Pancreatic Cancer. A person who has pancreatic cancer will have issues with their digestive system, which can lead to having their condition diagnosed as IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) or inflammation.
• Thyroid Cancer. Located in the neck, patients who have symptoms of issues with swallowing or breathing could receive a diagnosis for a thyroid disorder when they really have cancer.
• Melanoma. Moles and skin growths may be misdiagnosed as benign but are actually cancerous.
• Colorectal Cancer. This cancer affects the lower intestine. Like pancreatic cancer, this type can also be misdiagnosed as IBS.

Just as doctors can think the symptoms are something other than cancer, they can also diagnose cancer when something else is going on. If you have received a cancer diagnosis, you’ll want to consider getting a second opinion. Another doctor may confirm the diagnosis or disagree with your current diagnosis if they find evidence that you have a different ailment.

How Does a Misdiagnosis Occur?

When you’ve gone through a misdiagnosis, you may wonder how it happened in the first place. Let’s go over how medical negligence can be the reason behind a cancer misdiagnosis.

Doctors are supposed to go through tests and procedures to narrow down the list of what your ailment could be. Unfortunately, if the doctor is inexperienced or makes a mistake, they could incorrectly diagnose you. If a doctor doesn’t have the training or experience necessary to identify evidence of cancer, they may see something that leads them to believe their diagnosis is correct. If the doctor is overworked, fatigued, or not paying close attention, they could misread a test and misdiagnose you.

What Can You Do After a Cancer Misdiagnosis?

Realizing a doctor has misdiagnosed you can be such a confusing time. As you go to other doctors to find out your real ailment and what you need to do to feel better, you may also be suffering from the financial costs of the misdiagnosis and how the treatment has affected you.

Your treatment may have included chemotherapy, radiation, surgical procedures, or other invasive and taxing treatments that you shouldn’t have had to go through in the first place. These treatments can be expensive and take an extreme physical toll on your body.

When you’re going through treatment, you also may have missed a significant amount of work, important events, and your everyday life may have changed as well. Our attorneys will make sure to go over how the misdiagnosis has affected your life. We’ll assess medical records to see the treatment you received and how much it cost you financially. If you missed work due to appointments for treatment, we’ll calculate the lost wages for those days you were out.

The pain from going through difficult treatment and the emotional toll of missing out on certain events because you thought you weren’t able to make it may not have a monetary loss, but those are still consequences of the misdiagnosis. Our lawyers have the experience necessary to accurately assess your non-monetary losses when calculating your compensation.

Seek Options From Experienced Cancer Misdiagnosis Lawyers in Baltimore

Whether you have cancer and your doctor missed it, or you do not have cancer but your doctor diagnosed you with it, you can seek justice for their failure to give you an accurate diagnosis.

While you’re trying to take care of your health and deal with the lost time because of the doctor’s negligence, taking legal action can seem like too much to add to your list of responsibilities. We’re here to alleviate that burden.

The lawyers at Belsky & Horowitz, LLC can go over your legal rights and options for your situation and help guide you through the legal process. The first step is meeting in an obligation-free consultation. Get in touch with our office today so we can help you move forward.