Delay in the diagnosis of breast cancer: medico-legal implications

Delay in the diagnosis of breast cancer is an important cause of medical malpractice claims which if trends continue, will threaten healthcare budgets. Most malpractice claims are made by younger women. Delay is most frequently due to the physician failing to be impressed with the clinical findings, or to a false negative mammogram report. Diagnosis of breast cancer is more difficult in younger women, because of the poor sensitivity of diagnostic tests and the high prevalence of benign disease in this age group. Models of tumour growth suggest that the potential to metastasize may be present before the tumour is clinically detectable and that if the growth rate of a given tumour is constant, any clinical delay is a small proportion of the lifespan of the tumour.