Receiving news that one has cancer is something no one wants to hear It is no surprise that a female patient can think it is very reassuring if her physician notifies her that she just has fibrocystic breast changes and that it is not necessary to be anxious about the lump in her breast. However this reassurance should only come after the doctor has done proper diagnostic tests to rule out the risk of breast cancer. Otherwise, the patient may not discover she has breast cancer until it is too late. If a doctor concludes that a lump in a female patient’s breast is merely a benign cyst and it afterward turns out to be breast cancer, the woman may have a medical malpractice case against that physician.

Perhaps some 80% of breast related changes are from benign causes. Further, most new breast cancer cases arise in females over 50 years of age. It is therefore not surprising that certain doctors will conclude that a lump found in the breast, particularly with a younger patient, as due to a cyst and not because of breast cancer. The statistics are in favor of such a diagnosis.

When dealing with breast cancer early detection is key. It can make the difference between life and death. Detected before it has a chance to spread, the odds are that with appropriate treatment the patient will survive the cancer. Actually with early detection and treatment the chances of survival is generally over eighty percent and can be as high as ninety-seven percent. After the cancer spreads, however, the probabilities go down drastically.

If the breast cancer is not detected until it gets to a stage III (generally involving bigger cancerous masses in the breast or a spread of the cancer to lymph nodes), the five-year survival rate falls to approximately 54%. For stage IV (generally associated with a cancerous mass that is bigger that five cm or the spread of the cancer to the bone or other organs, such as the lungs), the 5-year survival rate is approximately 20%.

It is predicted that 1 in 8 women will have breast cancer in the course of their lifetime. Cancer of the breast is the 2nd prevalent cancer in females. Over one hundred ninety thousand females are predicted to be newly diagnosed with invasive breast cancer this year. Furthermore more than forty nine thousand women are expected to pass away of breast cancer this year. Since women whose breast cancer is detected and treated in the early stages have a better than eighty percent expectation of surviving the cancer for more than five years after diagnosis, a question that should be asked is how many of those forty thousand or more females who will pass away of from advanced breast cancer this year might otherwise survive if their cancer had been diagnosed early.

By conducting a clinical breast examination a physician just cannot accurately distinguish between a benign cyst and a cancerous growth. Given this a physician ought to normally suggest that diagnostic testing be ordered instantly if a lump is detected in a woman's breast. Among the tests can should be performed are an imaging study such as a mammogram or an ultrasound, or a sampling, such as by biopsy or aspiration. Each can fail to diagnose a cancer so it might be important to perform more than one test before breast cancer can be ruled out.

If a physician concludes that a mass in a woman's breast as just a benign cyst after only performing a clinical breast examination, that doctor puts the woman at risk of not learning she has breast cancer until it metastasizes. Not performing proper diagnostic testing, like an imaging study such as a mammogram or ultrasound, or a sampling, such as a biopsy or aspiration, might constitute a departure from the accepted standard of medical care and might lead to a malpractice lawsuit.