Cancer Claims

There are many possible causes for different symptoms and the majority will be benign, but in some cases investigation of those symptoms will lead to a diagnosis of cancer.

There are many different types of cancer. It is one of the most difficult diseases to cure, and, whilst survival rates are improving, we are a long way from a complete cure. Although each variation of the disease carries different symptoms and survival rates, the chances of survival decrease dramatically in the later stages of the disease.

Cancer staging is a way of describing the size of the cancer, how far it has grown, and whether it has spread into surrounding tissues. For most cancers:

• Stage 1 usually means that a cancer is relatively small and contained within the organ it started in.
• Stage 2 usually means the cancer has not started to spread into surrounding tissue but the tumour is larger than in stage 1. Sometimes stage 2 means that cancer cells have spread into lymph nodes close to the tumour. This depends on the particular type of cancer.
• Stage 3 usually means the cancer is larger. It may have started to spread into surrounding tissues and there are cancer cells in the lymph nodes in the area.
• Stage 4 means the cancer has spread from where it started to another body organ. This is also called secondary or metastatic cancer.

Delayed Diagnosis

Opportunities for diagnosis and treatment can be missed by medical staff which can seriously impact upon your ability to recover from the disease, or even survive by:

• Allowing the disease to develop and advance to the next stage, making a difference to your eventual outcome
• Delaying life-saving surgery
• Delaying the start of a course of chemotherapy
• Reducing the chance of radiotherapy shrinking the disease

Misdiagnosis

In some cases, patients have been misdiagnosed with cancer and have undergone unnecessary and extensive surgery.

What Constitutes as Negligence

When it comes to cancer, medical negligence towards you can take several forms; for one, it could arise from a failure to diagnose your disease correctly. Due to the wide range of types of cancer, your symptoms could be common to a multitude of other illnesses, which could lead a medical professional to give you a diagnosis of something entirely different. However, with the blood tests and biopsies that can be carried out to rule out cancer as an option, misdiagnosis of your illness shouldn't happen. Other instances of negligence can derive from of errors in treatment. Perhaps a hospital has taken weeks or months to offer you life-saving surgery to remove the cancer, giving the disease time to worsen.

How Can We Help You?

When medical treatment goes wrong, only lawyers with expert legal knowledge will do. Here at Joseph James Law we understand that a delay or misdiagnosis of your cancer can result in more extensive treatment such as surgery, radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy, and in some cases, a reduction in life expectancy, that may otherwise have been avoided. We understand this can be a severe financial, physical and psychological burden on the whole family.

Our medical negligence team are recognised experts in conducting claims of this kind and understand the importance of compensation and can help you obtain a settlement that will help with any financial and future care needs that you may have.

For a free and confidential assessment of your potential claim by our Specialist Clinical Negligence Solicitors please contact us on Freephone 0800 999 1234.