On occasion, doctors and other trained medical professionals fail to recognise the signs and correctly diagnose cancer in a patient – whether that’s failing to diagnosing a cancer that’s present, or diagnosing someone with cancer when it is not.

In both cases, these misdiagnoses usually have a profound effect on the patient, reaching not only to their physical health but their mental health and their relationships with loved ones.

The charity Cancer Research UK can provide information and support for cancer sufferers and their families.

Do I qualify to make a medical negligence claim as a result of cancer misdiagnosis?

1. Did the health professional fall short of the accepted standard for his or her area of specialisation when he made, or failed to make, the diagnosis?

2. What would have happened if the correct diagnosis had been made? How does the hypothetical outcome compare with the actual outcome?

Cancers are usually assessed in stages. If experts can demonstrate that the cancer has progress to the next stage as a result of late diagnosis, when treatment would probably have prevented that, you should be entitled to claim medical negligence compensation.

Balance of probability test

In order to assess what would have happened should the correct diagnosis have been made, the courts use the balance of probability test.

The rules of this test dictate that if a person would have had a chance of survival of 50% or more had their illness not been misdiagnosed, then they would be entitled to compensation.

If, however, they would have had less than 50% chance of survival even if they were correctly diagnosed, then they would not be entitled to any compensation, because their chance of survival would have been minimal anyway.

For example…

If the court’s impartial experts determine that correct diagnosis would have resulted in a timely treatment that would have afforded the patient a 60% chance of survival, and the delayed diagnosis and treatment has diminished that chance to 40%, the patient would be entitled to compensation.

If, however, with correct diagnosis, a patient’s chances of survival were 40% and that chance was diminished to 20% by a misdiagnosis, there would be no entitlement to compensation.

Claiming Compensation

Expert medical negligence lawyers will work with you to determine the merits of your case and will be able to offer you advice based on their assessment.

In every case, medical evidence will be required. It is necessary for the patient or their representative to demonstrate the following:

• That the health professional they’re suing specifically owed them duty of care,
• That they violated that duty of care – what’s known as negligence;
• That the resulting problem was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of that person’s negligence.