Breast cancer is the most common kind of cancer among women in the United Sates. In fact, Washington state has among the highest rates of breast cancer among women in the United States. The statistics of the disease can be sobering – for example, 1 in 8 women will likely develop breast cancer in their lifetime. There is good news though: incidence rates and mortality rates have been declining steadily for years now. Given the improved public knowledge of the disease and trends in incidence rates, delays in diagnosing breast cancer are nevertheless a devastating fact of medicine and the medical-legal world.

There are three primary types of cancer of the breast: ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS; early stage, non-invasive cancer of the milk ducts); invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC: invasive cancer of the milk ducts); Invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC; invasive cancer that starts in the milk-producing glands). DCIS has a very high survival rate, as it is cancerous tissue that has not yet spread to the surrounding tissues; it is also called Stage 0 cancer.

Just like any other cancer, if caught early the patient’s prognostic outlook is significantly improved. So, how does a delay in diagnosing breast cancer happen? What does it mean for the patient?

Well, the most common delays in diagnosis are due to a couple of factors that make up the screening and diagnostic process.

The most common way a delay occurs involves misreading radiology results. Screening mammograms are meant to identify abnormal tissue before symptoms (like a palpable mass) develop; a radiologist may misread the mammogram, overlooking the early stage cancer (or stage 0 pre-cancer). Alternatively, a provider may simply neglect to order imaging when symptoms begin to develop. For example, we have even reviewed cases where the radiologist read the imaging correctly, but the clinician did not convey the abnormal results to the patient or order any followup imaging.

If enough time has elapsed before the diagnosis is finally made, the patient’s prognostic outlook may have dropped from near 100% survivability to somewhere near 25%. Based on that statistic alone, it is evident that delays in diagnosing breast cancer may be devastating.