Call us Today at (954) 458-8655

Breast Cancer Misdiagnosis Lawsuit Guide for Patients

Breast Cancer Misdiagnosis Lawsuit Guide for Patients

Get insights on your rights after a delayed or missed breast cancer diagnosis, including how these errors happen and the steps to recover damages.

A breast cancer misdiagnosis lawsuit arises when a patient alleges that a healthcare provider’s error—such as diagnosing cancer too late, not at all, or incorrectly—leads to harm. These lawsuits are often grounded in claims of misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis, or failure to pursue or follow-up on appropriate tests; which reflects the critical need for accuracy in early detection of breast cancer.

Understanding how errors happen, the steps involved in filing a breast cancer misdiagnosis lawsuit, and the available legal recourse, are vital first steps for patients who seek to regain control of their lives once again.

In this article, we’ll break down:

What Is Breast Cancer Misdiagnosis?

A breast cancer misdiagnosis can include:

  • Delayed diagnosis: when obvious warning signs or test results are overlooked or not pursued in a timely fashion. Included here is poor communication between medical providers or a failure to follow up on suspicious test results. Additionally, administrative errors related to lost or mixed-up patient records and test specimens can also lead to a delayed diagnosis.
  • Incorrect diagnosis: where conditions are dismissed as benign, like a lump or breast pain.
  • Imaging errors: these events can occur with mammograms, ultrasounds, and MRIs, either from failing to order the correct follow-up tests or by misinterpreting the results. Mammograms have a known margin for error, especially in women with dense breast tissue.
  • Failure to order proper diagnostic tests: mammograms aren’t the only diagnostic option – tissue sampling (biopsies) can often give more accurate results. However, biopsies can produce a false negative due to samples being taken from the wrong area or misreading by a pathologist.

Such errors can severely impact patient outcomes. A delayed diagnosis can allow the cancer to progress to a more advanced stage, requiring more aggressive treatments and reducing survival odds.

According to NIH-supported literature, surgical and clinical diagnostic delays are a leading source of malpractice claims in breast surgery practice, with a well-recognized Triad of Error involving young patients with self-discovered masses who experience negative mammograms. This triad of error accounts for the majority of misdiagnosed breast cancer cases. The use of tissue sampling techniques for a more accurate diagnosis can help to reduce error rates in these high-risk cases.

Common Causes of Breast Cancer Misdiagnosis

Breast cancer misdiagnosis can occur for many different reasons. However, some common themes in misdiagnosis cases are the age of the patient, major imaging errors in mammograms, and a failure to carry out further testing. Let’s consider each of these in turn:

The Patient’s History and Demographics

One common mistake that physicians make is assuming that because young women have a lower risk of breast cancer, any lump they find in their breasts is benign. While it’s true that breast cancer is more likely in women who are over 40, it can occur in younger individuals. When a clinician relies solely on demographics and fails to follow through on diagnostic options for younger patients, this puts the patient at risk of misdiagnosis.

Another major risk factor that can lead to cases of breast cancer being overlooked is poor continuity of care, especially in younger individuals.

Mammogram-related Errors

Imaging-related errors are a major cause of failure to diagnose breast cancer. Poor mammogram image quality and other technical failures account for a significant percentage of malpractice claims relating to mammograms. Some common issues include:

  • Lack of clinical context—many radiologists fail to correlate imaging findings with the patient’s symptoms. According to one study, this is reported in approximately 80% of negligence cases.
  • Errors such as incorrect BI-RADS scoring, overlooking additional lesions shown on the diagnostic, and fatigue contribute to misreading can all lead to an incorrect diagnosis.
  • Medical malpractice issues are further compounded by a reluctance among radiologists to disclose or correct prior interpretive errors, even when they result in delayed cancer detection.

Biopsies and Treatment

In addition to failure to diagnose cases caused by physicians who fail to order biopsies for younger patients, there are other common issues relating to biopsies. For example, issues with pathological evaluation, including misclassification or failure to perform essential immunohistochemical testing, can mislead treatment decisions. In some cases, other physicians identify these errors but fail to disclose them to the patient, further delaying a correct diagnosis.

Reaching a correct diagnosis can be particularly difficult in instances where breast lesions have misleading pathology following cosmetic procedures such as augmentation.

Factors that Contribute to Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

There are several other potential confounding factors when it comes to medical malpractice cases, including:

  • Healthcare settings: In busy surgical or hospital environments, organizational protocols and team coordination may impact outcomes. If a chaotic or understaffed environment leads to lost or misinterpreted test results or to a failure to follow up on test results, the healthcare institution may be liable for malpractice.
  • Communication breakdowns: Misinterpretations among multidisciplinary teams and poor patient-provider dialogue can lead to a delay in diagnosis. In particular, if test results are unclear and this is not properly communicated to the patient or their physician, there may be delays in ordering follow-up tests.

Steps for Filing a Breast Cancer Misdiagnosis Lawsuit

Patients considering legal action generally follow this pathway:

  1. Investigation: Engage a medical malpractice attorney to review the case, and your medical records, and communicate with the appropriate experts.
  2. Gather evidence: Compile medical records, timeline documentation, and expert opinions.
  3. File the complaint: A formal lawsuit is initiated in line with the statutory procedural requirements. See our How to File a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit guide for a more detailed breakdown of this process.
  4. Obtain expert medical testimony: An expert duly qualified as set forth under Florida law must attest that the physician breached the prevailing professional standard of care, and in doing so, caused harm to the plaintiff.
  5. Resolution: When the case is filed, the defendant has the opportunity to gather their own evidence through legal discovery, and perhaps request mediation and/or offer to either settle the case or have the case proceed to trial.

What Proof Do I Need to Win a Breast Cancer Misdiagnosis Lawsuit?

To achieve a successful outcome in a breast cancer misdiagnosis lawsuit, a victim must be able to prove their case using the following evidence:

  • A timeline of symptoms, treatment, and diagnostic actions by the health care provider.
  • Medical records and test results, including imaging and lab reports.
  • Expert medical testimony confirming that the health care provider deviated from the prevailing professional standard of care. In Florida, an affidavit from a medical expert working in a similar field to the defendant is required for a medical malpractice lawsuit to be filed.
  • Competent and admissible evidence that the health care providers’ failure to diagnose breast cancer, or delay in the diagnosis, caused harm.
  • Evidence of actual harm or damages, whether that’s in the form of poor health, emotional pain, physical pain and suffering, future medical costs, loss of earnings, and other economic and non-economic damages.

Common Challenges Victims Face When Filing a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit

The burden of proof in a medical malpractice lawsuit is significant, and this can present several challenges for patients, including:

  • Difficulty proving the prevailing professional standard of care was breached, because this requires qualified expert testimony.
  • Proving that the harm the plaintiff experienced was a direct result of the delay in diagnosis, rather than the cancer.
  • Overcoming the defences mounted by the hospital’s or doctor’s legal teams.

A skilled cancer misdiagnosis lawyer can help by ensuring the relevant evidence is collected in a timely fashion. They can also work with a medical expert to obtain the affidavit required to pursue the case in court.

Law Note: Prompt action is essential. Under Florida’s Statute of Limitations law, you generally have 2 years from when you knew, or should have known, about the medical malpractice to file a lawsuit, and no more than 4 years from the date the medical malpractice occurred. There are some limited exceptions to this statute of limitations, such as if there was fraud or an attempt to conceal the malpractice. However, in the vast majority of cases, the 2-year limit applies. Missing that deadline can bar your claim entirely.

Defenses to Breast Cancer Lawsuits

Healthcare providers have the right to defend claims against them. The courts set a high evidentiary burden on breast cancer diagnosis lawsuits, in part to protect healthcare providers against frivolous claims.

It’s important to keep in mind that medical science isn’t always black and white. Breast cancer symptoms can mimic benign conditions, and diagnostic results can be inconclusive. Because of this, not every diagnostic delay is considered negligence. The courts recognize that doctors cannot accurately diagnose every patient they see, particularly if they present with ambiguous symptoms or their test results are inconclusive.

When a patient attempts to make a claim against a healthcare provider, they’ll find themselves up against that provider’s legal defense team and their insurance company. In the case of a cancer misdiagnosis, there may be several healthcare providers involved – including radiologists, surgeons and primary care physicians. This makes proving responsibility particularly challenging.

Another issue is that retrospective analysis is inherently speculative. A trier of fact may find that earlier detection wouldn’t have changed the outcome.

Finally, prevailing professional standard of care can vary—what’s “reasonable” depends on specialty, facility, and even geographic norms. The defendant may argue that the care they provided was in line with what other local doctors or radiologists would have delivered.

Potential Damages and Compensation for Breast Cancer Misdiagnosis Cases

In the event of a successful outcome of a breast cancer misdiagnosis case, you may be awarded damages covering two main categories:

  • Economic damages to cover past and future medical expenses, loss of earnings, and up to 80% of future lost earning potential.
  • Non-economic damages to cover pain and suffering, inconvenience, physical impairment, mental anguish, disfigurement, loss of capacity for enjoyment of life, and other nonfinancial losses.
  • In cases where a breast cancer misdiagnosis led to a patient’s death, their loved ones may be able to claim for damages under the Wrongful Death Act.

Florida Statutes 766.202 and 766.118 define the types of allowable damage and also set limits on non-economic damages. Currently, the law limits non-economic damages to $500,000 per claimant. Punitive damages may also be awarded in cases of extreme negligence or recklessness.

How Much Compensation Can You Expect?

Compensation varies widely by case complexity and injury severity. Cases at the lower end often settle between $200,000 to $500,000, while high-value cases—especially those involving advanced harm or death—can reach $2 million to $5 million or more.

Compensation depends on the severity and progression of the cancer and whether the delay impacted the outcome of treatment. If the failure to diagnose breast cancer led to the patient’s death, their family members may pursue compensation.

Have a Question?

If you have questions about your situation or are considering action, speak with experienced medical malpractice attorney Alan Sackrin at (954) 458-8655 or visit our contact page. Early consultation is crucial to enable us to assist with preserving evidence and complying with legal deadlines.
 
 
 

Resources: