Situations involving the delayed detection of breast cancer typically involve 1 or 2 medical mistakes - (1) not performing any diagnostic testing to rule out cancer when a lump is felt in the breast and (2) misinterpreting a mammogram. Should a physician make either of these mistakes and thereby holds up the detection of the cancer until it spreads, she might have a lawsuit for malpractice. The first most likely error made by doctors is not performing any diagnostic testing in the event that a female patient complains that she found a mass during a self-conducted breast examination or the physician discovers the lump during a screening clinical breast examination. Some doctors will tell the woman what she has is merely a benign cyst, commonly when the patient is younger than forty and has no family history of breast cancer.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that most new cases of breast cancer happen in women older than 50, younger females can, and are, diagnosed with breast cancer daily. Further, it is not possible to verify, using only a clinical breast examination, if a lump in the breast is a benign cyst or is a cancerous mass. Because of this , a doctor should perform diagnostic testing in order to figure out whether the mass is cancerous. Diagnostic tests the doctor can order include a mammogram, a biopsy or an aspiration. Should the woman actually have breast cancer, the failure to order diagnostic testing can result in the growth and spread of the cancer.

The second mistake made by doctors is to incorrectly interpret a mammogram. Mammograms are taken to check the breast for abnormalities that could be due to cancer. The mammogram produces images of the inside of the breast with low dose x-rays of the woman's compressed breast. The ensuing images are then studied by doctors for the presence of any structures or changes that could be cancerous.

However, doctors in some cases overlook what is basically in front of their eyes. Sometimes doctors miss an abnormal structure or change that appears in the mammogram. In some other cases, physicians wrongly diagnose an abnormality as not cancerous without recommending any diagnostic examination , for example, a biopsy to exclude the possibility of cancer.

By making either mistake a physician may be responsible for a delay in the detection of the woman's cancer. The longer the detection of breast cancer is delayed, the more likely it is that the cancer will spread and reach an advanced stage. When the cancer spreads, the treatment options for the patient are reduced. Furthermore, her 5-year survival rate, the chance she has of surviving the cancer for five years or more, even with treatment, lessens drastically.

Once the cancer reaches the third stage, the survival rate drops to fifty-five percent and by the fourth stage it is only approximately twenty percent. If the cancer had been detected early, the 5-year survival rate would have been over eighty percent, possibly as high as above ninety five percent if it had been diagnosed early enough.

Medical errors can lead to deadly consequences. This is particularly true for people who have cancer. The delay in diagnosis can result in the loss of the breast, limited treatment possibilities, and in some cases, may be even lead to the death of the patient. In situations when this is the result, medical errors like those described above may constitute malpractice.