Oregon women may be interested in the results of a new study that shows early breast cancer detection still matters. The large-scale analysis was recently published in a leading medical journal.
Researchers at Erasmus University Medical Center, the Netherlands Comprehensive Cancer Organization and the University of Twente studied the medical records of approximately 174,000 Dutch women diagnosed with breast cancer. They broke the patients into two groups – those who were diagnosed between 1999 and 2005, and those were diagnosed between 2006 and 2012. They found that those diagnosed in the latter group had more early-stage diagnoses and more low-grade tumors. However, the basic pathology trends were the same for both groups. Researchers found that the larger the tumor, the lower the survival rate. They also found that breast cancer involving the lymph nodes has a significantly higher mortality rate than breast cancer that has not spread to the lymph nodes.
The research findings run counter to the well-publicized view that modern medicine has reduced the value of early breast cancer detection. The authors of the study state that early breast cancer detection is vital to the overall survival rate of breast cancer patients.
Delayed treatment of breast cancer due to an earlier failure to diagnose the disease can have deadly consequences. Oregon women who have been the victim of a misdiagnosis or a delayed diagnosis by a physician may want to speak with a medical malpractice attorney to determine if any legal recourse is available to seek compensation for the damages that have been incurred. The attorney might determine through a review of the patient’s medical records and the opinions of medical experts that the practitioner failed to exhibit the required standard of care.