Failure to Diagnose Lung Cancer in Early Stages

Lung cancer, despite research and new therapeutic approaches, is still overwhelmingly a fatal disease. As reported in the October 13, 2011 “New England Journal of Medicine,” the time it takes to diagnose non-small cell lung cancer, approximately 25 to 35 percent of patients also have a metastatic tumor in their brain making treatment complicated and the disease often incurable. These grim statistics highlight the necessity of radiologists properly interpreting chest x-rays which are used for surveillance, and for family physicians and internists to be alert for the clinical symptoms of disease.

In the event you or a family member has been diagnosed with lung cancer, it is important to review prior chest x-rays to determine whether the disease could have been discovered and treated at an earlier stage, leading to less invasive treatments, greater median survival, and appropriate curative treatment. Andrew S. Muth has reviewed and litigated cases on the failure to diagnose lung cancer and has access to highly skilled and ethical radiologists who read films.