How would you react if you found out that you had prostate cancer? How would you react if you then additionally learned that the cancer was advanced making it, at the current time, not curable? And how would you react if you then learned that your doctor either failed to adequately screen you for prostate cancer or disregarded abnormal test results that could have helped diagnose your cancer while it was still confined to the prostate and was still curable?

Do you think that this will never happen to you? Well, look at what occurred to the men involved in the following cases:

In one reported claim, a man was followed by his doctor, an internist, for three years during which time the doctor ordered PSA blood tests that found elevated levels (a sign that the patient might have prostate cancer and which physicians generally acknowledge should be followed by a biopsy). The physician, however, did not discuss the abnormal test results to the patient. When the patient ultimately found out about the abnormal result and underwent a full cancer workup it was discovered that it was too late as he now had advanced prostate cancer. The law firm that represented the patient in this matter documented that the resulting lawsuit settled for $600,000.

In another reported case, the male patient was not only not informed that a series of PSA tests showed levels that were elevated and getting worse, yet rather was advised by his doctor that the results were normal. When the patient subsequently went to a urologist at the urging of his family, he was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer as the cancer had already spread to the seminal vesicles. The law firm that represented the patient in this matter published that the resulting lawsuit settled for $1.5 Million.

Far too many men end up in positions just like the preceding. Whether the doctors fail to check the results of the tests, whether they take the position that there is no need to take action even though the PSA is elevated or a nodule of a certain size is detected in the prostate, or whether they simply do not accept the guidelines and the standard of care for the action that is proper when screening results are abnormal, these doctors are responsible a delay that leads to the growth and spread of the cancer.

Various physicians do not believe that there is any benefit to screening men for prostate cancer (or do not understand the guidelines) and either just do not screen their male patients or advise them against it. Other physicians do not review the results of screening tests. And other doctors fail to follow up on an abnormal screening test result and not order a biopsy or refer the patient to a specialist. The result is often tragic: an avoidable death that becomes unavoidable.

Imagine being the one who got that news. You would likely fight the cancer as hard and as long as you could. What if you were his spouse, his child, his parent? You would help him fight the cancer and you offer him all the love and support you had to give.

Perhaps you would decide to bring a lawsuit for medical malpractice to help protect your family's future. And you might hope that if forced to deal with the mistake and to incur a cost for it, maybe, just maybe, the doctor will improve how he or she treats other patients afterward so that this tragedy will not happen again.