Imagine that your doctor physically examines your prostate gland for any signs of potential cancer including an enlargement or a hardening of the prostate and if there are any growths palpable on the gland. Imagine the doctor orders blood tests, including a PSA test which is used for the early detection of prostate cancer. This is the way to determine whether a man without any symptoms of prostate cancer might in fact have it. Imagine the tests came back outside the normal range

Certain physicians take the position that prostate cancer screening, particularly PSA testing, is of little or no value. These doctors argue that screening has little, if any, value. If the result of a screening test is abnormal the patient ought to be informed about the results and either be referred to a specialist or be told about the option for diagnostic testing, like a biopsy. Once more, though, some physicians also believe that, at least under certain circumstances, a male patient who is diagnosed with prostate cancer does not need to treat it right away and merely has to carefully monitor the cancer.

If the doctor does not give the patient the option to undergo screening or does not tell the patient about the abnormal test results the patient’s prostate cancer may spread and metastasize without the man even knowing he may have cancer. However, if a doctor noted that the patient’s prostate was enlarged or there was a nodule on the gland and the PSA test results suggested abnormally high levels of the antigen and the doctor did not inform the patient about the abnormal results, the individual would in all likelihood believe that meant the results were all normal.

Should the man does actually have cancer, not informing him that he might have cancer will postpone his diagnosis.

A delay might, in turn, give the cancer time to reach an advanced stage. Once a cancer metastasizes treatment will at best delay the continuing growth of the cancer and lower the effects (for example pain) of the cancer. In situations like these, that male and his family may have a failure to diagnose malpractice lawsuit against the physician.

Screening tests may have false positives. This means that certain patients with abnormal screening results will not have cancer. Yet doing screening tests for cancer is meaningless if there is no follow up as it gives the patient an incorrect sense of security thinking he has no cancer as the physician tested him but did not tell him that the screening tests revealed he might have cancer. Physicians commonly recognize that there is a need for follow up when the results of screening tests come back as abnormal.