Some cancers can and should be discovered early before they have a chance to grow or metastasize. Many governing medical bodies, including the American Cancer Society, publish guidelines for doctors to screen for these cancers.

Delayed Cancer Diagnosis

Early detection is crucial for increasing survival rates. Unfortunately, delays in diagnosis can have severe consequences. If you or a loved one has experienced a late or delayed cancer diagnosis, you may be entitled to compensation. Call us at 833-PORTER9 for a free case evaluation or contact us through our website.

Common ways diagnosis is delayed

Diagnostic delay in cancer often reflects breakdowns at multiple points in the care pathway. Common patterns include:

• Failure to recognize "alarm" symptoms: Persistent or unexplained symptoms (for example, a changing breast lump, rectal bleeding, unexplained weight loss, persistent cough, or new neurologic deficits) are not recognized as potentially cancer-related and are instead repeatedly attributed to benign conditions.
• Failure to order appropriate tests or referrals: Primary-care clinicians do not order indicated imaging, labs, endoscopy, or biopsy, or do not refer promptly to specialists despite ongoing or worsening symptoms; studies of national cancer audits and malpractice claims link many avoidable delays to failure to investigate or refer.
• Delays in scheduling or performing tests: Even when investigations are ordered, long waits for imaging, endoscopy, or biopsy, or cancelled and unscheduled appointments, can significantly extend the time to diagnosis.
• Failure to follow up abnormal results: Abnormal imaging or pathology reports are not reviewed, not communicated to patients, or not acted on with the recommended next steps, allowing suspected cancers to go unconfirmed and untreated.
• System and communication failures: Poor coordination between primary care, specialists, and diagnostic services, and lack of tracking systems for abnormal results and overdue appointments, contribute to patients "falling through the cracks."

Misdiagnosed Cancer

Misdiagnosis can lead to inappropriate treatments and further complications. Our experienced team at the Porter Law Group can help you navigate the legal process if you've been affected by a cancer misdiagnosis.

Common misdiagnosis scenarios

Research on diagnostic errors and malpractice claims highlights recurring patterns in cancer misdiagnosis. Typical scenarios include:

• Attributing cancer symptoms to common benign conditions: For example, bone pain from metastases labeled as musculoskeletal strain, chronic cough from lung cancer treated as asthma or infection, or rectal bleeding from colorectal cancer attributed to hemorrhoids without appropriate workup.
• Anchoring on an initial diagnosis: Clinicians may fixate on an early explanation (such as anxiety, infection, or degenerative disease) and discount new or evolving symptoms that should prompt reconsideration of cancer.
• Overreliance on negative or incomplete tests: A single negative imaging study or incomplete examination is taken as definitive, even when symptoms persist or progress, leading to premature closure of the diagnostic process.
• Misinterpretation of imaging or pathology: Radiology or pathology errors, such as missing a mass on imaging or reading a biopsy as benign when malignant cells are present, can result in prolonged misdiagnosis.
• Specimen and communication errors: Mixed-up samples, incomplete clinical information on requisitions, or failure to communicate concerning preliminary findings to treating clinicians can all lead to incorrect or delayed cancer diagnoses.

The Most Common Types of Cancer Prone to Late or Misdiagnosis

The screening tests are designed to detect cancer early and increase survival rates. Proper screening greatly increases the chances of detecting these cancers early, when they can be cured. Learn more about these types of cancers and the tests your doctors should order to detect them early:

• Endometrial Cancer
• Prostate Cancer
• Breast Cancer
• Colon/Rectal Cancer
• Cervical Cancer
• Ovarian Cancer
• Lung Cancer

Despite advances in diagnostic technology, many doctors still fail to properly interpret test results and often fail to respond in a timely fashion to their patients' complaints of abnormal signs and symptoms with all different types of cancers. If you were told a test was normal, only to find out months or years later that it was actually abnormal, or if you were complaining of concerning signs and symptoms long before you were finally diagnosed, you may be entitled to compensation for your delayed cancer diagnosis.

What you need to prove in a cancer misdiagnosis case

Although specific rules vary by state, cancer misdiagnosis malpractice claims generally require proof of four elements: duty, breach, causation, and damages.

• Duty: There was a provider-patient relationship, meaning the clinician or facility owed you a professional duty to use reasonable care in evaluating your symptoms, ordering tests, and acting on results. Evidence: medical records, intake forms, and billing records showing who treated you and when.
• Breach of the standard of care: The provider departed from what reasonably prudent clinicians would have done, for example, by not investigating alarm symptoms, not ordering recommended imaging or endoscopy, not referring to a specialist, or not acting on abnormal test results. Evidence: records compared to clinical guidelines and expert opinions describing what should have been done.
• Causation: The delay or error must be a substantial factor in causing a worse outcome, such as diagnosis at a higher stage, need for more aggressive treatment, greater disability, or reduced survival, than would likely have occurred with timely diagnosis. Evidence: oncology records, staging information, and expert testimony linking earlier diagnosis to more favorable prognosis.
• Damages: The patient suffered losses that the law can compensate, including medical costs, lost income, disability, pain and suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life, which are greater than they would have been if the cancer had been diagnosed when it reasonably should have been. Evidence: treatment bills, employment records, and documentation of functional and quality-of-life impact.

What Compensation May Cover

In cancer misdiagnosis cases, compensation is intended to address both economic and non-economic harms linked to the delayed or incorrect diagnosis. Potential categories include:

• Medical and care costs: Past and future expenses for surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, hospitalizations, rehabilitation, palliative care, and home or long-term care services made necessary or more extensive by the delayed diagnosis.
• Lost income and earning capacity: Wages or salary lost due to treatment and disability, and reduced future earning potential when cancer or its treatment limits work.
• Non-economic harms: Compensation for pain and suffering, emotional distress (including anxiety and depression, which are common in cancer patients), loss of enjoyment of life, and loss of companionship or consortium.
• Wrongful-death-related damages (where applicable): Funeral expenses and certain financial losses suffered by survivors when a delayed or missed cancer diagnosis leads to a patient's death, as defined by state law.

Cancer Information & Resources

• What Is Cancer?
• Types of Cancer
• Cancer Symptoms
• Cancer Diagnosis
• How Is Cancer Staged?
• Cancer Treatments
• Cancer Prognosis, Outlook and Survival Rates

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the odds of winning a medical malpractice suit?

Empirical studies of malpractice claims show that many filed cases resolve without trial and that, in cases that do reach a verdict, defendants succeed in a substantial proportion, reflecting the difficulty of proving both a clear standard-of-care departure and causation.

Because outcomes depend heavily on the strength of the medical evidence, expert opinions, jurisdictional rules, and procedural issues like filing deadlines, the probability of success in any individual cancer misdiagnosis case can only be assessed after detailed record review.

What is the average settlement for cancer misdiagnosis?

There is no single authoritative "average" cancer misdiagnosis settlement figure reported by government or major medical bodies, and published data typically aggregate all malpractice claims rather than isolating cancer cases.

Settlement amounts vary widely based on factors such as the patient's age, stage of cancer and prognosis, the extent of disability, lifetime medical and care needs, lost earnings, and the strength of the liability and causation evidence.

Who is considered the best lawyer in New York?

Public agencies and professional organizations do not designate any one "best" medical malpractice lawyer in New York, and rankings are often based on proprietary or marketing-driven criteria rather than objective comparative outcomes.

Patients are usually encouraged to consider factors such as a firm's experience with complex medical cases, resources for expert review, familiarity with New York procedural rules, and willingness to take appropriate cases to trial rather than relying on promotional labels. The Porter Law Group has extensive experience handling complex cancer misdiagnosis cases in New York.

What is the average malpractice settlement in NY?

There are no truly accurate figures because all cases are examined individually. But recent analyses of National Practitioner Data Bank and insurance data indicate that New York consistently ranks among the states with the highest total annual medical malpractice payouts; one 2025 summary reported roughly 1,200 resolved cases in 2024 with most settlements or judgments falling between about $100,000 and $249,999, and total payouts exceeding $550 million.

However, these figures combine all types of malpractice claims and injuries, and they do not predict the value of any specific cancer misdiagnosis case, which depends on individualized damages and liability evidence.