In medical malpractice claims that deal with the delayed diagnosis of prostate cancer the majority of potential plaintiffs focus solely on whether the doctor made a mistake. Yet this is just one factor that a lawyer should address when assessing a potential claim. Next, lawyers take into account whether they will be able to establish causation - a legal phrase that refers to exhibiting that the doctor's mistake was the cause of the harm to the plaintiff. Lawyers further look at whether the nature and extent of the harm is such that the lawsuit has enough potential value to be worth the time and expense that will be required to go forward with the claim.

In one documented case, a fifty two year old patient had his PSA taken by his doctor The lab reported that the PSA level was normal. Two years later the physician again ordered a PSA test for this patient. This time, however, the result indicated a level of 4.2. This was marked as high in the report supplied by the lab that conducted the blood analysis. The doctor saw the man four times over the next 2 . 5 years without ever informing the patient of the abnormal test result or ordering a follow-up PSA test. It was more than three years after the abnormal test result that the doctor at last ordered another PSA test. At that time the results showed a PSA level of 5.25. The PSA level had risen.

This was the first time the doctor told the patient of the prior high level. At this time, the physician referred the patient to a urologist. A biopsy revealed that the patient had cancer. Surgery disclosed that the cancer had already spread to the seminal vesicles and there was evidence of vascular as well as perineal invasion. Because the cancer had by then started growing outsid the prostate, the surgery lowered his PSA level but could not take out all the cancer. The man therefore underwent hormone therapy. His PSA levels then began to go up post-operatively. This indicates a poor prognosis so that it is improbable that the man will live 5 years beyond the surgery.

The law firm that helped the man and his family documented that they attained a settlement for more than $500,000 on behalf of the patient and his family. The patient was 60 at the time of the settlement. The settlement agreement left the possibility of a wrongful death case if the man does not live to the relevant statute of limitations.

As this lawsuit illustrates, the full degree of the harm to the patient was not known until the results of the surgery were evaluated and showed that the cancer had, in fact, already begun spreading outside the prostate. And it was not until the patient’s PSA levels started to climb after the surgery that the full extent of the harm could be determined. At that point the lawyer was in a position to be able to thoroughly evaluate the patient’s claim. Notice that the law firm in this case limited the settlement only to the patient’s medical malpractice claim. This was especially important given the man's poor prognosis. Of course whether there will later be a wrongful death case that can be pursued is determined by several issues like whether the man will die due to the cancer or because of some other cause and if this takes place within the time frame permitted by the applicable statute of limitations and statute of repose.